


Through Time and Space, Sara Lance

by Ewrites00



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Adventure, Eventual Romance, F/F, Superheroes, The Waverider (DC's Legends of Tomorrow), Time Travel, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-03-18 07:30:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13677090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ewrites00/pseuds/Ewrites00
Summary: When Alex spends her first Valentine's Day after Maggie drinking scotch and feeling miserable, she decides to visit Sara Lance on the Waverider. Sara decides to take her and the team for a time-travelling Valentine's Day adventure. After their fun suddenly gets interrupted, Alex finds herself fighting alongside the Legends to protect history. Eventually AgentCanary.





	1. Alex Hates Valentine's Day

“I was just so happy to finally be spending Valentine’s Day with someone I loved, you know?” Alex says to Kara as she downs another shot of tequila. Even in her slightly inebriated state, she doesn’t miss the sad, wistful look that passes over her sister’s face. She mentally slaps herself. Of course Kara knows how she feels. At least with Maggie it had been her choice, even though it had been the hardest choice of her life. Kara had had absolutely no control over what happened with Mon-El. But still she was here, helping Alex pick up the pieces of her broken heart. The girl really was an angel.

Alex snuggled up close to Kara. “You’re the best sister ever, Kara. I love you so, so much.” “O-kay.” Kara said, laughing. “I love you too. But I think it’s time we take you home.” Alex pouts. She doesn’t want to go home; doesn’t want to see the empty bed and empty rooms and picture frames lying face-down because she can’t bear to look at them but can’t bear to put them away either. But she still has work tomorrow. Valentine’s Day doesn’t stop the aliens from attacking. In fact, it encourages them, she thinks, looking back at Mxyzpytlik the year before. So she lets her sister escort her outside of the alien bar, to a cab that is waiting there for them.

 

When they get to her apartment, she has to reassure Kara twenty times that she really will be fine, until her sister finally leaves. As she walks in the door, she doesn’t turn on the light, hoping that the darkness will obscure the emptiness. She briefly considers getting out a bottle of wine from the fridge to help her sleep, but decides against it. Her hangover will be bad enough as it is. So she quickly brushes her teeth, grateful that the darkness means she can’t see her own face. Her eyes look so dull whenever she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror that she’s put towels on most of the mirrors in her house. She can’t blame Kara for worrying.

 

As she climbs into bed, she sees the numbers on her alarm clock switch from 23:59 to 00:00. She curses. Valentine’s Day is here, and there’s nothing she can do about it. She hates herself for feeling this way; hates that she’s become like all the women on tv who spend Valentine’s Day crying, watching bad tv and drinking cheap wine while they stuff their face with chocolates. But the hole in her chest, which had begun to heal at least on the edges, even though she hadn’t noticed, feels like a fresh gaping wound once again. She lies in bed, staring at the ceiling. She’s afraid to close her eyes, because every time she closes her eyes, there she is. Maggie. With a smile as radiant as the sun, and a kindness in her eyes which almost rivals Kara’s.  And the painful reminder that she _chose_ to give that up, chose to give up the beautiful woman with a heart as good as gold.

 

She gets out of bed suddenly, unable to stand the thoughts that keep running through her head in the silence. She doesn’t know what she’s going to do, doesn’t know any way to distract herself anymore. She stumbles to her fridge to get out the bottle of wine, trying to remember the last time she could forget Maggie for at least a moment and feel okay. Suddenly, a very attractive blonde comes to mind. Even though Alex had felt awful at first for what she’d done, Sara was actually the first person who made her feel as if she could be okay after Maggie. As if there was still a world out there that was actually worth looking at. She rushes to her sock drawer, a plan becoming clear in her mind. A plan that will allow her to forget about Maggie at least for that one cursed day in February. She grabs the tech-device she’s looking for, quickly pushing the correct buttons. If she takes too long, if she stops to think about it, she knows that she will chicken out. Part of her thinks that would be better. But a bigger part of her yearns for the blondes company.

 

The yellow lights of the device start to blink then, and suddenly she can hear Sara’s voice through the receiver. “This is Sara Lance, Captain of the Waverider. Is that you, Supergirl?” Alex is silent for a moment, hesitating. Hearing the blonde’s voice makes her happier than she thought she could be right at that moment, but she’s still not sure this is the right thing to do. “Hello?” Sara repeats, and Alex doesn’t hesitate any longer. “Hey, Sara. It’s Alex.” Sara is quiet for a split second, but she quickly recovers from her surprise. “Everything okay?” She asks. “Do you need any help over in your universe?” Alex sighs. Of course this is the first thing Sara would think of. She’s a hero first and foremost. “No, no emergency. Everything is fine here. I was actually wondering if I could come and visit you on the Waverider.” She bites her tongue, waiting for a reply. Clearly, Sara is considering what Alex might mean by that. But she seems to decide that it doesn’t matter.

 

“Of course, Alex. You’re welcome here any time.” She pauses for a second. “But do you know how to get here? I don’t actually know how to travel between universes.” “Yeah, I do. I, uh, borrowed one of Cisco’s devices. You know, for special agent purposes.” Alex can hear Sara laughing on the other side. “Sure, Danvers. Well, beam yourself up then.”

 

Alex almost smiles at that. She throws a few clothes in a bag, remembering at the last minute that she only wore a t-shirt to bed. She quickly puts on some jeans, and then she punches in the coordinates of the Waverider on the device. She has no idea how it can get her both to a different universe and to a different time, but she’s seen enough of Cisco’s tech to know that it will work.

And truly, five seconds later she’s standing on the bridge of the Waverider. Thankfully, Sara is the only one there. She doesn’t really feel like explaining her late-night visit to the rest of the team.

 

“Hi, Sara.” She says, slightly awkwardly. “Hello, Alex.” Sara replies. Her voice is much more confident than Alex’s, but it’s clear in her eyes that she’s wondering what the special agent is doing there. “So you just decided to drop by for a visit?” Alex casts her eyes downward. Even though there is only curiosity in the blonde’s voice, she still feels slightly judged. Of course this was a bad idea. Why on earth would Sara want to see her? “Come on, Danvers. I didn’t mean it like that.” She comes closer to Alex, and puts her arms around her shoulder. She seems to understand what Alex needs more than Alex does herself at that moment. “Let’s get ourselves a bottle of scotch, and then you can tell me what’s really going on.” Alex can only nod as she lets herself be steered towards the break room.

 

Armed with a bottle of scotch produced by the food fabricator, they make their way towards Sara’s quarters. “Make yourself comfortable.” Sara says, gesturing towards her room. Alex blushes as she looks at the unmade bed. Sara raises her eyebrows, not at all missing the expression. Curse these trained assassins. “So this is an interdimensional booty call?” She says, laughing. Alex groans, putting her face in her hands. “Yes. No. Maybe? I don’t know.” Sara laughs even more at the flustered agent.

“Okay, let’s sit down. On the couch. And then we can talk. You know, for an assassin, I’m a really good listener.” Alex nods gratefully, and manages to say “And so humble, too.” Sara just smiles, glad Alex is feeling good enough to be cracking jokes.

 

They situate themselves on the couch, sitting opposite each other with their legs between them. Alex doesn’t particularly feel like having a heart-to-heart just yet, so she gestures for Sara to pass the bottle of Scotch. She takes a big swig, and then another. Sara, unlike Kara, doesn’t stop her. She just lets her drink. After a while, though, when it becomes clear that Alex isn’t going to say anything of her own accord, she tries to start the conversation. “So, I can’t help but notice that it’s Valentine’s Day.” Alex looks up sharply. “You know, even though I’m on a time ship, I still know what day it is. That have anything to do with why you’re here?” Alex sighs, realizing that the blonde is not about to let it go. She nods, looking down at her feet. “I just couldn’t bear being alone. Without Maggie.” Sara puts a comforting hand on her leg. “You’re welcome here anytime.”

 

“What about you?” Alex says, eager to get the conversation away from herself. “You mentioned there was a woman as well.” “Nyssa?” Sara says, laughing. “She wasn’t much for celebrating Valentine’s Day. Daughter of the head of the league of assassins, and all that.” Alex smiles. Sara really does seem to be okay without this Nyssa. She hopes that one day she’ll be able to speak this jokingly about Maggie. But not yet, she realizes as her smile falters again. Sara sees it, and offers her the bottle of scotch again. At least she’s not alone now, Alex realizes. She takes another swig of Scotch. It burns pleasantly down her throat.

 

“Oh, shit.” She suddenly exclaims. Sara looks at her worriedly. “What is it?” “Well, I still have work tomorrow. I can’t show up all hungover.” Sara grins, her previous worry disappearing. “We’re on a timeship, remember? You can stay here as long as you like, and then we’ll get you back. It’ll be as if you never left.” Alex breathes out a sigh of relief. “Can you put me back after Valentine’s Day is over though? I really don’t feel like experiencing this day twice.” Sara nods understandingly. “Of course. Maybe send a message to your sister though, or I have a feeling that is going to be one unlucky universe.”

 

Of course! Alex slaps herself mentally. After all the times she’s chastised Kara for going away without leaving a message, she’s not about to make the same mistake. She quickly types out a message on Cisco’s device. When she looks up, Sara has a contemplative look on her face. “How about tomorrow, we go for a fun Valentine’s Day with the whole team? Everybody’s single, so that works out perfectly. We can visit any Valentine’s Day in any time, and just have a good time.” Alex raises her eyebrows. She didn’t think Sara was into fun group activities. “What?” Sara says, seeing the look on her face. “It’ll be a good teambuilding activity.” “I don’t know…” Alex said hesitantly. “I’m not sure I’m in the mood for spending the whole day looking at happy couples having fun.” “Well, sitting around wallowing and drinking scotch is definitely not going to help.” She says pointedly.

 

“Fine.” Alex says, giving in. The blonde grins, and Alex is pretty sure this excited, party-planning Sara is a side of her she’s never seen before. “Now, let’s get you to bed.” Sara says, getting up off the couch. At Alex’s look, she clarifies “No, not like that. You know that that’s not really going to help you.” Alex only nods, but she’s reassured by the fact that Sara clearly has some difficulty refusing her. At least there’s nothing wrong with herself, Alex thinks.

 

So they go to bed, both dressed in full-length pyjamas. Alex stares at the ceiling for a while, and she can tell by her breathing that Sara hasn’t fallen asleep yet either. After a while, she whispers “Hold me? I can’t fall asleep.” She thinks the blonde hasn’t heard her, until suddenly two strong, muscled arms wrap themselves around her. And Alex lets the warmth of the other woman’s embrace comfort her, until finally she falls asleep.


	2. Alex Also Hates Pink

When Alex wakes up, the bed beside her is empty and cold. She sighs. Sara should have woken her up. Then again, she feels properly rested for the first time in weeks. She can’t blame the assassin for letting her sleep in. She considers staying in bed a little longer, then decides against it. She gets bored lying in bed like that anyway. As she gets out of bed, she contemplates what she is going to wear. Her plans for the trip definitely hadn’t looked further forward than the one night, so there is a distinct lack of clothing choices. In the end, she settles for the jeans she wore last night and a DEO issued T-shirt. Why a clandestine government organisation creates clothing with its logo on the front is beyond her, but considering the DEO doesn’t exist in this universe, she decides it doesn’t matter.

 

After she’s dressed and brushed her hair, taking care not to look in the mirror, she makes her way out the door. She decides her best bet is the break room. As she walks towards her, she can hear loud grumbling. Even though she doesn’t know the Legends well, she’d bet a month’s salary that Mick is the one doing the grumbling. She’s already contemplating what she’s going to say to the team when they see her, not looking forward to that conversation. She doesn’t need the entire population of the ship to know that she was here for an admittedly failed Valentine’s Day booty call.

 

But any thoughts on how she will be received fly right out of her mind when she enters the break room. It doesn’t look at all like the room she saw yesterday, even though her inebriated state might’ve clouded her memory slightly. She almost gasps. Mick laughs loudly at the expression on her face, but Sara wallops him over the head before he can say anything.

 

The entire break room is decked out in reds and pinks, and there is an extraordinary amount of hearts all over the walls. The table in the centre of the room, around which the Legends are sat, is full of Valentine’s Day themed breakfast foods. Alex spots waffles with pink heart shaped sprinkles, as well as a fruit salad with apple slices cut in the shape of hearts. Sara must’ve been awake for hours to get this done.

 

She finally looks over at the woman in question, who grins at her widely. And Alex decides right then and there that Sara’s smile is one of the purest things in this world. The assassin is wearing more pink than Alex has ever seen on any one person at once, which is another thing Alex had never in a million years expected to see. She’s wearing a bright pink crop top that says “Girls rock!” underneath a light pink jacket. And even her hair is apparently dyed a bright shade of fuchsia. “Wow.” Alex exclaims. Sara just grins more.

 

Then, the rest of the team decides to make their presence known. “Hey, Alex.” Ray says. She turns towards him, and looks at the goofy grin on his face. He reminds her of Winn, with his awkward goodness and obvious genius. “It’s good to see you again. Happy Valentine’s Day!” Alex thanks Ray, as the rest of the team greets her and wishes her a happy Valentine’s Day as well. Not one of them enquire as to why she’s here, and she’s grateful. She suspects that Sara has already talked to them, and quite possibly threatened them if they say anything out of line.

 

“Well, now that we’re all done wishing each other a happy Valentine’s Day, time to dig in! I didn’t make all of this food for nothing.” “The food fabricator made that food.” Mick points out. Sara wallops him over the head again. “Well, you’re going to need the energy anyway. We have quite the day ahead of us.” She says, grinning. “Well, someone’s pleased with themselves.” Zari says, but she quickly piles some pancakes on her plate anyway. Alex sits down, and grabs some food for herself as well. All the pink foods are slightly off-putting to her, with their unnatural colours. Then again, she supposes all of the food is unnatural, since it is made by an actual food fabricator. And Alex fully plans to find out how that thing works, if she sticks around long enough anyway.

 

“So, what is it you have planned?” Alex asks Sara. “Top secret.” Sara says, miming zipping her mouth and throwing the key away. “Come on! At least tell us a little.” Nate wines. When he sees that Sara will definitely not crack, he looks over at Amaya. “What about you? Just give us something.” Amaya smiles politely. “I promised Sara I wouldn’t say anything, and I am a woman of my word. Besides, you like to be surprised anyway.” Nate groans defeatedly. But Alex is becoming slightly intrigued, despite herself. She came to the Waverider to distract herself from her wallowing, but she didn’t expect that she might actually enjoy her time there, at least a little. And if Sara needed Amaya’s help for whatever it was she has planned, it had to be something big. But she doesn’t mind being in the dark just a little bit longer.

 

After they’d all finished their food and put their plates in the dishwasher (because apparently dishes had to be done even in a time-travelling spaceship) Sara calls out for their attention. “So, for this first part I’m going to warn you: bring some warm clothes, or you’ll be freezing in no time.” “I hate the cold.” Mick grumbles. “Why can’t we just spend Valentine’s Day on a tropical beach somewhere?” Sara ignores him. “And also: I’m not going to force you all to wear pink-“ “I’d like to see you try, blondie.” Mick interjects. “But no wearing black today. Let’s show that we are part of the Light side.” Sara looks at Alex’s black DEO T-shirt pointedly, while Ray grins at the Star Wars reference.

 

“Alright, let’s meet in half an hour at the cargo doors.” She says, dismissing the crew. Alex helps her tidy away the last few dishes, and then follows her to her room. “I didn’t actually bring that many clothes.” She tells Sara as they’re walking. She doesn’t like the glint that comes into Sara’s eyes as she says this. Whatever the blonde is planning, she’s sure she won’t be too happy about it. As they walk past the door to Sara’s room, Alex moves to go inside. “Not yet.” Sara says, walking down the next hallway instead. “Just follow me.”

 

They end up in a space reminiscent of a high school gym locker room, but without the stench. Alex looks around the room. “I don’t see any clothes here.” Sara just grins. “You’ve seen our food fabricator; now meet our clothes fabricator.” She looks almost proud. “It can create any outfit from any era. And also false documents!” Alex raises her eyebrows. Sara just rolls her eyes. “Don’t be such a special agent.” “Don’t be such an assassin.” Alex retorts. Before she can react, she’s lying on the floor with Sara’s knee to her throat. “This is me being an assassin.” It’s Alex’s turn to roll her eyes. “Yeah, we get it. You’re superstrong and superfast.” “And don’t you forget it.” The blonde says, as she jumps back to a standing position.

 

“Okay, time to make you an outfit.” She grins wickedly, and Alex realizes that this is what her premonition had been about. “So how does it work?” “Oh, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.” Alex blushes. She can’t believe she’d forgotten what a total flirt the woman was. As she’s contemplating this, she can hear the machine buzzing. Sara is between her and the fabricator, so she can’t see the outfit at first. When she does, she almost has to close her eyes, the colours are so bright. “There is no chance in hell I’m wearing that.” She exclaims. Inside the fabricator, there’s a bright blue skirt, made of wool for warmth. On top of it, there’s a coat made of faux-fur which matches the shade of Sara’s hair. Next to it, there’s a grey thermal shirt which is clearly made of twenty-first century materials.

 

She raises an eyebrow at Sara. “That doesn’t look very historically accurate.” Sara just shrugs. “Well, as long as you don’t plan on showing anyone what’s underneath your coat.” She says, with a wink.  “I’m still not wearing those clothes.” She insists, ignoring the comment. “Come on, Danvers. Have a little fun. I’m going to plan an amazing day, so you just have to follow along.” Alex sighs, then decides there really is no point in arguing with the woman. Besides, she’s not really sure she wants to. What Sara is doing for her is incredibly kind, so the least she can do is play along.

 

When they meet with the rest of the crew at the cargo doors, Alex is surprised to see that the whole crew has listened to Sara’s instructions. Although most of their clothes are a bit more subdued, they are all wearing light colours, and Amaya even has a pink headband. Sara raises her eyebrows at Nate, who is wearing a light pink coat. “What?” He says. “I look good in pink.” He grins, as Amaya rolls her eyes. “Sure you do, pretty.” Mick says. But even he is wearing grey trousers and a blue coat.

“So, will you tell us where we’re going now?” Ray asks excitedly. “Just wait and see.” Sara says, as she opens the door to the cargo bay. The first thing that Alex sees as the doors lower are the tops of fir trees, covered in a layer of snow. It seems Sara wasn’t kidding about the cold. Then when the doors lower, she sees something that looks a bit like a ski-slope. There is a big banner above the slope, with five intertwined coloured circles which Alex immediately recognizes.

 

“We’re at the Winter Olympics?” She exclaims excitedly. She doesn’t usually get overly excited about sports competitions, but there is something about the Olympics which makes her interested and invested anyway. “Got it in one.” Sara says, as she steps out of the doors. Nate looks around carefully. “Is this Oslo? Oh my god, this is Oslo, isn’t it? I recognise the Norwegian flag. Which means this is…” “1952.” Sara finishes, nodding. She looks back over her shoulder at the rest of the team, still standing on the ramp of the ship. “Well, what are you guys waiting for? Time to watch America kick some ass.” They follow her outside the doors, towards the slope. When they get to the masses of people surrounding the finish line at the bottom of the ramp, Sara flashes a badge at a security guard. He immediately escorts them to a special area, near the finish line. As one of the skiers comes down the hill, Alex marvels at how close they are. She can almost see the expression on the man’s face as he tumbles through the air after jumping of the slope. She looks at Sara, smiling. “This is incredible!” She has to yell to make herself heard over the cheering from the spectator stands. Apparently the current skier is Norwegian. “I agree with the redhead.” Mick says approvingly. The entire time looks at him, surprised. “What? At least some of these losers are gonna fall down that mountain.” Amaya shakes her head, as the rest of the team laughs. As the conversation falls into smaller groups, Alex looks at Sara. “So, are you also going to compete?” It wouldn’t surprise Alex in the least if the woman had decided to participate in the event.

 

“Oh, don’t think I haven’t considered it.” Sara says wistfully. “I’d beat all of their asses. But I can’t. No interfering with the timeline, remember? That’s the first rule of being a Legend.” Alex is pretty sure their presence already counts as interfering, but she doesn’t point it out. For now, she’s content sitting there with the team, watching the sportsmen ski down the hill and perform insanely complicated jumps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you have any suggestions on where the Legends can go next, please let me know. Happy Valentine's Day!


	3. Alex doesn't hate amusement parks

They spend the rest of the morning watching the Games, cheering loudly whenever there’s an American participant. Alex has to admit she’s actually enjoying herself there; it’s hard not to get swept up in the spirit of the Olympics. And she only thinks of Maggie once or twice, when she’s watching the triathlon. The event with skis followed by shooting seems perfect for her former fiancée. But as soon as she thinks this and her expression sours, Sara whisks her and the team off to another event. Alex decides that although the assassin’s close attention is a bit disconcerting, she’s grateful that she’s making such an effort. She has to admit that Sara Lance using time-travel to distract her from her heartache wasn’t exactly what she’d expected when she jumped onto the Waverider, but she’s not about to complain.

 

After they’ve gotten themselves some Scandinavian snacks (Alex is careful to avoid the raw fish, although Ray seems to be enjoying it quite a bit) Mick starts to complain about being cold. “I told you to dress warmly.” Sara says slightly irked. “And I told you I didn’t like the cold.” The burly man retorts. Sara just sighs. “It’s time for the next part anyway.” They make their way back to the ship, and Alex can’t help but feel slightly disappointed that they’re leaving already. She makes a mental note to start paying closer attention to the Olympics back home, since now that she’s experienced the event first-hand she feels a strange kind of connection.

 

“Alright, people. Meet back here again in half an hour. And you can ditch the warm clothes, the next place we’re going won’t be quite as cold.” Sara instructs them once they get back to the ship. “It better be.” Mick remarks sourly as he slinks of towards his compartments. Amaya punches him on the arm good-heartedly. After he leaves, she says “Actually, I’m looking forward to slightly warmer weather as well. There was definitely never snow in Zambesi.” She says, but she’s smiling. Sara smiles back at her, as she gestures for Alex to follow her out of the room and back to the clothes fabricator. “This time, I get to choose the clothes. And no more skirts.” Alex tells the blonde resolutely. “Well, you have to keep your costume historically accurate.” Sara says, her eyes wide open in a mockingly innocent look. “And women didn’t wear jeans until the sixties.” She adds, but she fails to keep a straight face. “Fine.” Alex says, rolling her eyes. “Let’s arm wrestle, and whoever wins gets to choose both outfits.” “Oh, you’re on!” Sara says, a wicked grin on her face. “There is no way you’re going to win this.”

 

And Alex has to admit that she’s right. Apparently, the biceps of a special agent just don’t match up to those of a member of the League of Assassins. She makes a mental note to do a few more push-ups the next time she’s training. “You’ll do better next time.” Sara says, feigning a conciliatory voice. But her glee on beating the special agent is quite obvious. “Oh, there will be a next time.” Alex says tauntingly. And she swears she can see a glimpse of happiness flash through the assassin’s eyes at her words.

 

Five minutes later, Alex emerges, wearing a light pink skirt with white polka dots as well as a bright pink frilly blouse. She hates the outfit even more than the last one, but a bet is a bet. And she can’t help but notice that Sara’s bright blue eyes pop out stunningly from underneath her fuchsia eyeshadow.  As they walk towards the exit of the ship, Sara regales her with bits of information on the 2018 Olympics. “You know, there’s a record of openly LGBT Olympians competing this year. There’s a gay figure skater, and Irene Wüst, a Dutch bisexual speed skater, has won ten Olympic medals in her life, which is the highest amount of any skater in history.”

 

“I didn’t know you were such a fan of the Olympics. Or of history, for that matter.” Sara laughs. “What can I say? There are lots of things you don’t know about me, Danvers.” But Alex casts her eyes downward at the flirting. She can’t deny that Sara is possibly the most gorgeous woman in any universe, with a smile that fills her heart with joy, but she is nowhere near ready for a relationship. She might’ve come to the ship with the intention of forgetting about Maggie, but she can’t deny the fact that she still has to process a lot of heartbreak. But Sara seems to understand.

 

“I’m sorry, Alex. I didn’t mean it like that.” “Oh, I know you did. You would flirt with a tree if you thought you could get a response.” Sara gasps and puts a hand over her heart, as if hurt by Alex’s comment. But it’s clear from her eyes that she’s glad Alex is feeling good enough to joke.

 

“Another pink outfit, Danvers?” Zari questions. “I didn’t take you for the girly type.” Zari herself is wearing a grey skirt with a dark green long-sleeved t-shirt. “I lost to Sara with arm wrestling.” She says, blushing slightly. The whole crew laughs at that, while Sara grins, clearly pleased with herself. “Don’t worry, redhead. Even I lost to blondie. She cheats.” Mick says, and Alex is taken by surprise by his attempt to make her feel better. Apparently so is the rest of the crew, since she can see Nate and Amaya exchange surprised glances. “I don’t cheat!” Sara exclaims immediately, and Mick’s comment is soon forgotten about in a heated discussion on who won the last game of Monopoly.

 

“Okay, okay!” Sara called the crew back to attention. “Time for our next stop!” This time, Alex waits until the cargo doors are fully lowered before looking outside. The amount of pink she sees now is an even bigger assault to her eyes than the break room during breakfast. “Jim & Jan’s Funland!” says a large banner over a front gate, as well as a smaller gate announcing a Valentine’s Day special. “An amusement park!” Nate and Ray exclaim at once. “I love amusement parks!” Ray adds. “I’m curious to see it. I’ve actually never been to an amusement park before.” Amaya explains. Nate immediately gets an bizarrely excited expression on his face. “This is going to be SO much fun!” “I’ve never been to an amusement park before either, actually. Not much time for _amusement_ in a time where there is a militaristic government and metahumans are outlawed.” “Well, then this is going to be twice the fun.” Ray says, completely ignoring Zari’s nonplussed tone.  

 

Alex has been to her fair share of amusement parks (which she suspects was mostly for Kara’s benefit; she doubts her science-loving parents would have left their work to go to a place like that were it not for their new alien daughter who they intended to show all the good things about their world) but she doesn’t recognise this one. She suspects that this has more to do with the fact that they’ve once again travelled through time than the fact that she’s in a different universe where the parks she knows quite possibly don’t even exist.

 

“Well, what are you all waiting for! Let’s go!” Sara says, quite literally shooing them out of the door. The team immediately splits up into smaller groups; Nata and Amaya go with Ray and Zari (both Ray and Nate already excitedly pointing out the different features of the park) while Mick walks of into another direction, grumbling something about going to get a beer. Alex notices that she’s once again alone with Sara, but she’s surprised to find she doesn’t mind at all. There is no residual awkwardness between them (which at least from Sara’s side there probably never was) and Alex realizes she’s enjoying the blonde’s company. She keeps continually surprising Alex with her light-hearted scheming.

 

“So, let’s go find some roller coasters.” Sara says, grinning wickedly. Alex lets out a laugh. Figures that the assassin would go for the most adrenaline-inducing thing you could possibly find in an amusement park. But then again, the roller coasters have always been Alex’ favourite as well. “After you, Lance.” Sara raises her eyebrows, and Alex just shrugs. Sara has been calling her by her last name for the entire day now, so it’s only fair she gets to do the same.

 

They walk into the park side by side, and beeline for the first rollercoaster in sight. Alex gets a slightly queasy feeling in her stomach as she spots the name of the rollercoaster. “Ride of romance?” Sara scoffs, seeing the title as well. “I don’t see the romance in screaming toddlers and puking children.” And Alex is immediately put at ease by Sara’s comment. Of course it doesn’t mean anything. Rollercoasters have nothing to do with love. The only reason for the silly name is that anything to do with Valentine’s Day sells well.

 

Alex is surprised to find that the line at the rollercoaster is rather short, even though they’re in a crowded park. She wonders if Sara has anything to do with that. But she can’t, can she? It would be a bit over the top, even for Sara. When they get to the top of the line, the attendant who is helping people into the carriages smiles at them. “Having a nice day out without your husbands.” Sara smiles condescendingly as she puts an arm around Alex, who has already settled into the carriage, “We’re together.” She winks salaciously, and the attendant looks extremely shocked, quickly looking around to see if anyone else has heard them. Then she recovers and pushes the button to make the carriage started rolling.

 

“Did you see the look on her face?” Sara exclaims as she laughs loudly. “I just love shocking the homophobes.” “She didn’t have to be a homophobe.” Alex points out. “She’s just from a different time period, she’s probably just not used to two women being together. And besides, did you really have to do that? For all you know, she pushed a button that will drop us from the top of the rollercoaster.” Sara rolls her eyes as she removes her arm from Alex’ shoulders. And even though she knows it was all for show, to cater to Sara’s exhibitionist tendencies, she can’t help but miss the contact a little.

 

It turns out that the rollercoaster, despite being from the fifties, is actually quite exciting. So they go on the attraction almost ten times, and these times the attendant only smiles at them politely. “See, told you she wasn’t a homophobe.” Alex points out, nudging Sara. “Pff, she just realizes how badly she could end up if she messed with me.” “Such faith in humanity.” Alex teases. “Well, I’ve been to enough time periods to know that for most of history people actually were terrible homophobes. Did you know they tried to burn me as a witch once, for “corrupting their women”?” “No, I didn’t.” Alex says sobering up. Of course she knows that people like her were prosecuted for millennia, but to actually experience something like that first-hand… Alex doesn’t know how Sara survives it. “Of course those dumb villagers with their pitchforks stood no chance against me.” Sara says, lightening the mood. Alex smiles at that. She can just about picture the expressions on their faces as they’re all at once defeated, by a woman no less. Sara seems relieved to see her smile again.

 

“Now, let’s go get some cotton candy. You can’t go to an amusement park on Valentine’s Day without getting some cotton candy.” So she orders them both a ginormous ball of pink cotton candy, after which they decide to make their way back to the ship. “Oh my god, this is so good!” Alex exclaims as she takes her first bite. Sara raises her eyebrows suggestively, but it doesn’t phase Alex anymore. By now she knows that Sara can no more stop flirting than she can stop breathing. “But yeah, I know.” Sara says. “Candy used to be so good before they started putting all of those additives in it!” Sara nods in agreement. “You should try the original Coca-Cola. It’s the best!” She says, as they arrive back at the ship where the rest of the team is waiting for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I promise there will be more action, starting next chapter! For now, I've just been having way too much fun forcing Alex to wear pink ;) Comments as always are greatly appreciated.


	4. No, Alex Does Not Want to Dance

“For the grand finale-“ and by now Alex has absolutely no doubt that whatever it is, it will be grand “-Evening wear is recommended.” Sara almost has to shout to make herself heard over the noise of Nate and Ray, who are still excitedly discussing the amusement park. “Listen when I’m speaking.” She says, slapping them both over the head good-naturedly. They nod like scolded little boys, before running of into the corridor, trying to get the other in a headlock. Alex catches Amaya smiling softly, and thinks that whatever it is that’s going on between Nate and her, it will be alright. At least Alex hopes so; she hasn’t had much of a chance to talk to the raven-haired heroine, but from what she’s seen she’s sure they’ll get along.

 

“To the clothes fabricator?” Alex predicts with resignation in her voice. “To the clothes fabricator!” Sara confirms with much more enthusiasm. “C’mon, Danvers. Get rid of that attitude. I promise you it’ll be a night you’ll never forget!” Now it’s Alex’ turn to raise her eyebrows. “Get your mind out of the gutter! I would never say something like that.” She feigns outrage for a second, before they both crack up laughing. “Okay, fine. I would. But this really is going to be fun!” Alex doesn’t bother pointing out that this could still be considered flirting.

 

“Okay, I don’t want you to see these clothes before we’re there. So you’re going to put on this.” From out of nowhere, Sara produces a blindfold. Alex can’t help but raise her eyebrows again. “You want me to put that on and then you’re going to dress me?” She says sceptically. “You know that I’ve already seen you without your clothes on.” Sara points out. “Besides, I just want it to be a surprise. I can get Amaya to help you dress if you’d like.” Alex shakes her head resignedly. “No, it’s fine.” She takes the blindfold and puts it over her head. What the blonde is saying makes sense, and besides, everyone at the DEO has seen her in her underwear as well. She’s not ashamed of her body.

 

It becomes clear that Sara is putting a dress on her, although she has no idea what kind. She jumps slightly when soft hands touch her hair, but then relaxes as she feels Sara start to braid it. She had no idea the blonde could braid, let alone this gently. She’s almost disappointed when Sara removes her hands from her hair and proclaims her ready.

 

Sara, who has apparently managed to dress herself as well in the short time they’ve been in the fabricator room, guides her towards the cargo door. She hears someone wolf-whistle as they approach, and decides that it has to be Mick. “I still don’t get why you had to blindfold her.” Amaya says with a hint of scepticism in her voice. “I just wanted it to be a surprise!” “Well, you do look beautiful.” Amaya points out, and Alex blushes slightly. Now she’s really curious to see what she’s wearing.

 

They get off the ship, and Alex has to rely on her other senses to figure out where they are. She can smell burning coal, as well as car exhausts. In the distance, she hears laughter and clinking glasses. “Can I see now?” She asks Sara. “Yes, I think you should take the blindfold of. Before people start to think you’re holding her against her will.” Zari says pointedly. Alex can almost hear Sara rolling her eyes, but a second later the blonde is removing the blindfold from her head. The first thing she sees is the assassin herself. She’s wearing a light, almost skin-toned dress, which ends a bit  before her knees and clings to her figure tightly. She thinks for a second that they’re back in the twenty-first century, but the large amount of beading and embroidery which looks almost handmade suggests that they are in fact not in their own time period. Alex’ suspicions are confirmed when she looks at Sara’s hair, done up in extravagant curls which are pinned back with heart-shaped crystals. This can only be one time period. “Are we in the Roaring Twenties?” Sara nods. “Got it in one!” Alex has to admit this counts as grand. She was never particularly intrigued by the age, with too much flourish and too little thinking in her opinion. But now that she’s here, she can’t really help but feel a little excited.

 

She looks around at the rest of the crew. The men are all wearing suits, while Amaya and Zari look gorgeous silvery gowns which glitter under the streetlight. Amaya smiles broadly as she sees her looking, then gestures back towards the Waverider. “Come on, check out your dress!” Alex swings around to look at her reflection in the shining metal of the ship. She can’t help but gasp. She’s wearing a dress that is slightly more conservative than Sara’s in style, but it makes up for it with its extravagant colour. She’s wearing a floor-length bright fuchsia dress, which tightens around her waist before widening to cascade to the floor like a waterfall made of fabric. Like Sara’s dress, hers has beading on the bodice. When she looks closely, she can vaguely discern the symbol of the house of El. She smiles, thinking of her sister. Then she looks over at Sara’s dress again, to see if she can find any images in the beading there as well. She laughs when she spots two small canaries made of glittering yellow crystals.

 

“So, what do you think of the dress?” Ray asks excitedly, apparently not able to wait any longer for her reaction. “I love it!” She exclaims. Sara raises her eyebrows almost imperceptibly at her word-use. Alex just shrugs. She doesn’t usually use such language to describe clothes; it makes her feel a little like a silly teenager. But she can’t help it; the dress is just too beautiful. She’s also in awe of her hairdo: Sara has managed to create a wondrous set of intricate braids interlaced with beads that match the dress, despite her short hair.

 

“So, do you have any plans for our time here? I can’t look this gorgeous and not go anywhere.” Alex says cheekily. Sara laughs, a loud, unrestrained laugh. She’s clearly caught off guard by Alex’ comment. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Danvers!”

 

“Yes, she does have plans.” Amaya answers for Sara helpfully. “We’re going dancing!” While Alex is eager to see the extravaganza of a 1920s dance, she is not all too eager for the dancing itself. She’s never really been that good at it, and for some reason she suspects that Sara Lance with her perfect coordination is not afraid to get out on the dancefloor and show some moves.

 

“We’ve been to this time period before.” Mick says sourly. “It sucks. No alcohol.” Alex had completely forgotten about prohibition, until Mick mentioned it. She isnn’t all too happy about that either; if she has to get out on the dancefloor, she would like some liquid courage. Besides, dancing and drinking just go together well. Everyone knows that.

 

Suddenly she looks over at Sara, who is ignoring her gaze studiously. She wouldn’t have! But Alex now feels certain that Sara isn’t quite as okay with Alex’ drinking as it had previously seemed. Rationally, she knows the blonde is right. Alcohol is not a good coping mechanism by any means, and Sara is just trying to help her avoid it. But she still can’t help but feel a little insulted at the woman’s interference.

 

After fifteen minutes of walking (which Alex due to her insanely high heels is definitely not enjoying) they get to a nightclub. Even for the twenties, the place looks incredibly fancy. Sara once again flashes a card at the doorman, and they are led inside immediately. Alex is awed by the decorations surrounding her. All the chairs and tables are made of ornately carved wood, and there are real glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The other people who are milling about are dressed exquisitely. The only thing which bothers Alex is the cigarette smoke hanging in the air; the ‘no smoking inside’ rule does clearly not exist just yet.

 

The Legends get themselves a table near the back of the room, private enough that they can talk without anyone overhearing them, but close enough to the dancefloor that they can see everything that is going on. “Care to dance?” Sara says, extending an arm to Alex. “No, thank you.” Alex declines politely. She doesn’t feel like making a fool of herself just yet. Sara just shrugs, and walks over to Amaya instead. Alex is surprised at the wide grin which appears on Amaya’s face, but soon understands, as the two women are whizzing around on the dancefloor. Sara is swift and strong, leading the dance with confidence, while Amaya follows closely, as elegant as a swan. They are truly a sight to behold, and apparently the rest of the patrons think so as well, because they form a loose circle around the dancefloor, and Alex can hear them gasp in awe every once in a while as Sara performs a particularly daring lift.

 

She’s completely enamoured by the sight, so she almost doesn’t notice it when a strange man, dressed in a leather jacket and wearing a leather mask over his eyes, slinks away into the direction of the restrooms. She spins around in that direction. “Zari, did you see that man?” She says, her voice low and worried. Zari shakes her head. “I didn’t see anyone, I was too busy looking at those two lunatics.” She says, laughing. Then she becomes more serious as she notices the look on Alex’ face. “Why, what’s wrong?” “I saw a strange man. He didn’t look like someone from this time, he was wearing a dark leather mask.” Zari looks at her sceptically. “There aren’t that many time travellers. And I doubt Damien Darhk goes around wearing leather masks.” “I don’t know, there was just something off about him.” And Alex has been out in the field enough to know that her intuition is usually right. “Can you go see if there is a back door there somewhere? I’m going to look around to see what he was doing here.” Zari nods, not doubting Alex’ directions despite her slight scepticism.

 

As Zari walks towards the restrooms, Alex makes her way around to the other side of the dancefloor. The people there are all standing still, completely hypnotized by the sight of Sara and Amaya dancing. Even the bartenders have left their spots behind the bar to watch. Alex taps one of them on the shoulder, and he looks at her slightly dazed. “Did you see a strange man walking around here?” “Why, is he bothering you miss?” The bartender says, clearly looking her up and down himself. Alex shudders in contempt. Clearly, he won’t be of any help. “No, I was just confused, that’s all.” She says, smiling sweetly. He shrugs, then turns back to the dancefloor.

 

She decides to go look behind the abandoned bar, since she saw the man come from that general direction. Perhaps he’s dropped something by which they can identify him. If there was ever a man at all, anyway. Alex is starting to doubt what she saw. But what she discovers as she steps behind the bar makes her blood freeze. She recognizes the device attached to the panelled wood of the bar immediately. She doesn’t hesitate as she vaults right over the bar onto the dancefloor, almost causing Sara to drop Amaya on the ground from her position in the air. Sara immediately registers the look on Alex’ face. “What is it?” She asks. Alex waists no time replying. “We’ve got a bomb.”


	5. Alex Is Impressed

Alex watches, awed, as Sara lance goes from a happy, fun-loving dancer to a confident and capable captain. “Amaya, you get these people out of here.” Amaya nods quickly and immediately starts ushering people outside, and Alex can hear her telling them something about a gas leak. “Alex, I want you to get Ray and try to figure out how to disable this bomb.” Alex nods without hesitation. She might’ve come her for a break, but if there are people to be saved, there is nothing else on her mind. She dives back behind the bar, motioning for Ray to join her. Alex can hear Sara telling Nate to follow her outside to try and catch the culprit, but she’s already focusing on the bomb.

 

“I don’t know how it works in your universe, but this kind of technology definitely didn’t exist in the twenties where I’m from.” Ray nods in agreement. “Looks like a twenty-first century bomb to me. I was developing something like it at Palmer Tech.” He sounds slightly proud of himself, but Alex has no time to waste. “So does that mean you know how to disable it?” Ray’s face turns more serious as he gets back to the task at hand.

 

Alex follows his instructions, as they switch around an excruciating amount of wires. After almost three minutes, when Alex is close to suggesting they leave the building before it blows up with them in it, Ray lets out a deep sigh of relief. “There, all done!” Alex nods curtly in acknowledgement. If Ray is expecting something more, like a hug or an awed gratefulness, he’s come to the wrong woman, Alex thinks. It’s all part of the job for her, and she’s nothing if not professional. “Let’s see if the others managed to find our guy.” She suggests as she gets up to walk outside. Zari and Nate are already standing there, at a safe distance from the bomb-rigged establishment. “We disabled the bomb!” Ray says proudly, and Alex has to admit it shows character that he doesn’t add on a “Well, I disabled it.”, even though Ray has in fact done most of the work. “Good job!” Nate says, pulling Ray towards him in a one-armed man-hug. Zari sees Alex looking and rolls her eyes exaggeratedly. Alex grins back.

 

“Wait, where’s Sara?” She asks the group. Nate shrugs. “Probably still out looking for our villain. She never does know when to give up. We couldn’t find any trace of him anywhere, looks like he just disappeared into thin air.” “Do you think she might be in trouble?” Alex asks, a hint of barely concealed worry in her voice. Even though she’s had plenty of experience with Kara and Maggie, she doubts she’ll ever get used to the scary feeling of someone she cares about being out in the field. “Nah, Sara can take care of herself.” Ray says, placing a reassuring hand on Alex’ arm. “Yeah, Sara’s the most badass person I know.” Zari says with a smile that is clearly meant to make her feel better.

Alex is starting to become slightly uncomfortable by the team’s close attention on her, so she shrugs off Ray’s arm apologetically and pretends to fiddle with her hair (even though somehow, the hairdo which Sara created for her seems perfectly intact even after all the scuffle).

 

Suddenly, she’s startled by the sound of something hitting the pavement behind her. She doesn’t hesitate, whirling around and launching a powerful karate kick as she goes. Her leg makes contact and she hears a grunt as the person in front of her topples to the ground. She’s caught off balance by the move and falls on the ground after her.

 

“Jeez, Danvers. If you wanted to get on top of me so badly, you could’ve just asked.” A familiar voice exclaims, not at all sounding winded from her sudden fall. “Sara?” Alex says incredulously, as she quickly gets up off the ground. “Why, did you think I was Santa Claus?” She says sarcastically, apparently in no hurry to get up. “I thought you might be our culprit.” Alex explains, determined not to let it show how foolish she feels. “I thought you said our culprit was a man. Do I look like a man to you?” Alex just rolls her eyes and extends an arm towards Sara to help her get up.

 

“I see you haven’t had any luck finding him either.” “I wouldn’t quite say that.” Sara says, smirking. She reaches one hand into the cleavage of her dress, and pulls out a piece of black leather. “What’s that?” Nate asks. Alex had almost forgotten that the rest of the team was still there as well, listening in to their conversation.

 

“It’s our baddies mask.” Sara says, smiling. “It might help us figure out who he is.” “Has anyone ever told you about proper evidence storage protocol?” Alex asks incredulously. She can hear Zari snicker in the background. Sara just shrugs. “Well, what else was I supposed to do? It’s not like this dress has room for pockets.” Alex just shakes her head.

 

“Well, let’s get back to the ship then.” Sara decides, as the rest of the team joins them. “I’m sure Gideon can help us find out who this person is and why he was targeting 1920.” “Wait, who’s Gideon?” Alex asks. She wasn’t aware the Legends had any other team members. “Who’s Gideon?” Nate echoes incredulously. “You mean to say you’ve been on the ship a whole day already and you have no idea who Gideon is?” Alex just shakes her head. Amaya decides to take pity on her. “Gideon is the ship’s artificial intelligence.” “Wait, you mean to say that your ship has an actual artificial consciousness on board? How does that even work?” Sara shrugs, and Alex doesn’t get how it’s possible that the blonde doesn’t want to understand every single function of the incredible ship she lives on. “I have no idea. And don’t let the fact that she’s a computer fool you. She’s a cheeky bastard. Actually, I met her once.” Sara says, remembering. “She was kinda hot.” She grins. Alex doesn’t even comment on the fact that Sara is proving all her points by flirting with an actual computer. “You met her once? I thought she was AI?” “Well, I had to rescue Rip from his own mind once, and she was there. In the flesh.” Alex shakes her head. And she thought having an alien for a sister was weird.

 

When they arrive at the ship, Sara immediately puts everyone to work. Alex has heard that the Legends have a penchant for messing up history while they’re trying to save it, but to her the team seems like a well-oiled machine. And she’s impressed by Sara’s skills as captain; the whole crew seems to follow her directions without questioning, and Alex agrees with all of the tactical decisions that Sara’s making.

 

“Gideon, can you pull up the historical record to see what was about to happen in that bar?  We have to find out why that rogue time-traveller was targeting this specific bar in 1920.” Alex is startled by a voice suddenly coming out of the ship’s speakers. “Right away, Captain Lance.” The pleasant, female voice must belong to Gideon, the ships AI. She automatically looks around to detect the source of the sound, before realising that there is no direct source. The ship itself is actually speaking to them. “I’ve pulled up the historical records from both before and after your interference, and you can take a look at them yourself. I have to warn you, though; a quick preliminary scan has detected nothing out of the ordinary. It’s quite possible that you won’t find what you’re looking for I these files.” Sara nods shortly. “Thanks, Gideon. We’ll have to go through them anyway. Alex, can you help me? Two pairs of eyes are always better than one.” Alex nods immediately, eager to be of assistance. Of course, her work at the DEO is incredibly important, but she can’t deny feeling at least a little excited at the prospect of potentially saving time itself.

 

“Nate, I want you and Zari to look at the historical records in the library to see whether there might’ve been anything Gideon’s missed.” Sara directs the rest of the team. “Ray, I want you to get moving on tracking the mask which I found.” Ray nods eagerly. Amaya and Mick are the only ones left standing there, waiting for orders. “You can go ahead and rest for a bit.” Sara dismisses them. “We’ll let you know if we discover anything of importance.” The two nod and make their way towards their rooms. Sara and Alex are left alone, standing in the lounge on the brig with countless files pulled up on the screen in front of them. “You tackle the national newspapers, I’ll check out whether there is anything of interest in the local newspapers.” Sara suggests.

 

They set to work in silence, occasionally regaling each other with funny or interesting news stories from the time they’re researching. Alex has never liked this part of being a special agent much; she prefers to leave the information gathering to the rest of the team, and to join in once it’s time to go in the field for some action. But there’s no doubt that having the right knowledge is critical to any operation.

 

After over three hours of searching, Sara gets up and makes her way to a crystal decanter. She pours them both a generous glass of scotch. Alex raises her eyebrows. “I thought we were in the time of prohibition?” “You noticed.” Sara says drily. “I think we both need some encouragement right about now.” Alex raises her glass into the air. “I’ll drink to that.”

 

After two glasses of Scotch and another two hours of research, Alex decides that it’s time to admit defeat. “I think we should call it a day.” Sara only nods, and Alex is once again impressed. Being able to listen to suggestions from your team is an important part of directing, one which Alex sometimes has trouble adhering to. “I doubt there is anything in these newspapers. And even if there was, my brain is far too muddled to recognise anything.” They get up and shut off the computer.

 

Alex decides to follow Sara as she checks in with the rest of the team and relieves them of their duties. They’re both disappointed to find out that neither Nate or Ray has made any progress towards finding their culprit, although Alex is certain that both of them would excitedly have come bounding towards the bridge if they had found anything.

 

As they get ready for bed, Alex notices that Sara is decidedly more dejected. She’s much less talkative, and she doesn’t even raise her eyebrows when Alex asks her for help in unzipping her dress. “You’ll find him eventually.” Alex tries to reassure the blonde. “You’re a great captain, and the team seems incredibly skilled as well.” Like a true captain, Sara smiles more at the compliment about her team that about her own skills. Suddenly, a strange expression comes onto her face, as if she’s debating whether to ask Alex something. “What is it?” Alex asks, sitting upright in bed in order to get a better look at Sara.

 

“Well, you’ll probably want to go home soon. After all, you have a universe of your own to take care of. And a sister.” An almost imperceptible hint of sadness crosses over her face at those words. Alex puts a comforting hand on Sara’s arm, but the blonde recovers quickly. “But if you’d consider sticking around a little longer, we could really use your help.” She says sincerely. Alex is slightly puzzled at the suggestion, but mostly honoured. If Sara Lance of all people asks her for help, she must be worth something. “I’m sure the team gets on just fine without me.” Alex says. “If you hadn’t been with us to notice the bomb, the whole team would’ve blown into pieces.” Sara points out. Alex can’t argue with that one. “ “And you can put me back exactly a day later from when I’ve left?” Sara nods in confirmation. “It’ll be as if you only left for a day.” Alex nods slowly.

 

“So does that mean you’ll join us?” Sara says, a hint of excitement in her voice. Alex laughs, waiting a few more seconds to drag out the anticipation. Before she knows what’s happening, Sara has her in a playful headlock. She laughs even more, as Sara threatens to start tickling her.

 

“Yes, yes!” She gives in quickly. “Of course I’ll join. It’d be an honour to fight by your side.” Sara smiles at that, a warm and genuine smile that melts Alex’ heart. The headlock turns into an embrace, as the two women express without words the joy at the prospect of working together.


	6. Willem of Orange isn't orange, Mick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I'm at my parents house with a cold. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I'm not really sure if I'm happy with the way it turned out so any reviews are always appreciated.

When Alex wakes up, she’s not the slightest bit disoriented, even though she’s only been on the Waverider for a single day. Her limbs are entangled with Sara’s, and she realises that if she’s going to live on the Waverider for the time being, they probably can’t go on like this. Alex is happy that she doesn’t have to fall asleep alone, but she knows that if she’s not careful, things could take a very different turn. She’s had a weak spot for Sara ever since their time together on Earth-1, but she’s nowhere near ready for an actual relationship after Maggie. And part of her thinks Sara deserves better as well; someone who can help her and be there for her, where Sara is not just waiting for them to heal their broken heart.

 

Alex decides to get up so she can get some exercise. That’s another thing she’ll have to keep in mind if she’s going to be staying here: she needs to be in top form. And not just so she can beat Sara the next time they arm-wrestle, but so she can do her part in protecting history. She’s used to the people around her having superpowers, she’s grown up with Kara and been trained by an actual Martian. So she doesn’t have much trouble with being on a team of super-powered meta-humans. She’s fully aware of her own capabilities and she’s learned enough to know that she is a valuable asset.

 

As she gets out of bed, Sara’s eyes start to open. The blonde rolls around on the bed lazily, her arms spreading across the duvet on either side. “Sneaking out of my bed again, Danvers?” “No sneaking.” Alex says, deciding it’s best if she doesn’t respond to the taunt. “I was just going to do some training.” At that, Sara wakes up even further. “Worried you can’t beat me, Danvers?” She says with a wicked grin. “You wish.” Alex replies, with a devilish grin of her own. “Want me to spar with you?” Sara suggests.

 

Alex considers the idea for a moment. Sara, with her strength, speed and technique is a formidable opponent who will definitely keep Alex on her toes and hopefully prepare her well for the next fight (which Alex has no doubt will come). But then she realizes what sparring will most probably mean. Tight clothes, racing hearts, skin on skin contact… “Maybe next time.” Alex says with a polite smile. Even though she’s resolved that nothing can happen between her and Sara, she’s not sure she’ll be able to resist the temptation if they end up fighting together in the training room. Sara just shrugs and sinks back into the bed.

 

On her way to the shower from her training session, Alex quickly eats a protein bar. After a good two hours of working out (where she’s eventually joined by Zari, who seems to be doing some sort of twenty-second century cardio) she’s starving, but she doubts the others will appreciate her presence at the breakfast table in her sweaty training clothes.

 

On her way to the training room, she’d realised that she didn’t actually have any clothes to work out in. So now she has a whole new wardrobe, courtesy of the clothing fabricator. It’s mostly practical clothing, nylon trousers and fibered t-shirts. But buried between training clothes is a bright red leather jacket. It still feels like her own style for Alex, the colour bright but unforgiving and the leather sharp and unyielding, but there’s also a hint of Sara’s influence coming through. Alex isn’t sure she’s ever going to wear it, but she decides it’s nice to have options.

 

After her shower, Alex makes her way to the break room, but she finds it empty. She scarfs down some scrambled eggs with a side of fruit salad, then goes to find the rest of the team. She finds most of the people on the brig, gathered around a big screen. Only Nate and Zari are missing. Nate is somewhere in the library, most probably, and she presumes Zari is still training.

 

Ray is the first to notice her as she comes in. “Hey, Alex!” he says, smiling. He’s always smiling. “Sara said you would be staying for a while. Welcome to the team!” He engulfs her in a hug, and she lets him for a second. She doesn’t usually let people become close to her this quickly. She wonders whether it has to do with the fact that he reminds her so much of Winn, or that it’s something else. As she looks around at the group standing there, she suspects it might be something else. She knows herself from being a special agent that bonds are quickly forged in battle, and she thinks that being on a time-travelling ship where the only people who can fully understand the situation you’re in are constantly near will only increase the effect.

 

Still, she makes her way out of Ray’s embrace quite quickly. She can’t have the rest of the team thinking she’s soft. “So, what’s going on here?” She asks. “Any luck finding the guy from yesterday?” Sara shakes her head. “Nothing. We’d hoped Ray’s DNA analysis could bring us closer to finding him, but whoever he was, his DNA doesn’t seem to be in any database in any time period. And we still have no idea what event in 1920 he might’ve been targeting.” Alex feels herself the disappointment that she can see on her new teammates’ faces at not being able to identify their attacker.

 

“So we just gonna sit around or what?” Mick asks, managing to sound both annoyed and bored at once. That seems to stir Sara into action. “No, we are not.” She says decisively, punching in a few things on the screen. The pervious images shift to reveal a map. “There’s still a timeline to restore and protect.” She says, as Ray comes forward to study the map. Sara looks over at Alex, who is trying to decipher the writing on the map.

 

“Long story short, in order to save reality, we had to make some unfortunate choices.” “We broke time.” Mick added. Sara glares at him. “I would’ve put it a bit more delicately than Mick, but that is essentially what happened.”

 

Alex is slightly surprised. After having seen the Legends in action, she’d thought that what everyone said about them screwing up time more than they saved it was exaggerated. Apparently not. Then again, she doesn’t have all the information to fully understand the decision. She can imagine that saving reality itself is worth some major sacrifices.

 

“Anyway, historical figures and events got a bit scrambled, which is why we have this map here. It’s called an anachronism map, and the number shows the impact of the anachronism on history.” Alex nods in understanding. Apart from the fact that the Legends apparently destroyed time, the situation doesn’t seem too complicated. She points at a level six anachronism with the year 1580 next to it. “How about we fix that one?”

 

Sara laughs. “Figures you don’t want to start off with an easy one.” Alex just shrugs. It seems obvious that they should fix the biggest problems the earliest. Sara motions for Nate, who was just walked in, to explain. He steps up to the screen. “It looks like Willem of Orange is murdered, four years before his original assassination in 1584.” “Stupid name.” Mick mutters. “He’s Dutch, their national colour is orange.” Nate says snappily. “Anyway, without Willem of Orange, Holland fails to become the first country which is governed as a republic. This means that the history of Europe is altered immensely.”

 

“Huh.” Says Ray. “I never knew the Dutch could have such a big impact.” “Well, actually-“ Nate begins to explain, before he is quickly interrupted by Sara. “Save the story for later. Time to stop an orange man from dying.” “He wasn’t even orange, he had dark brown hair.” Nate mutters, but Sara is already on her way to the fabricator room.

 

Alex feels ridiculous in her hoop skirt, and the corset tied tightly behind her back complicates her breathing. Despite herself, she misses the ridiculous pink outfits which Sara forced her into. At least those were relatively comfortable. Zari seems equally frustrated with their clothing; she keeps tugging on her sleeves as if that’s going to make them fit better. Nate and Ray, on the other hand, look ecstatic. They both have big, flowy blouses and are mock sword fighting.  Once again, Zari sees Alex looking and rolls her eyes exaggeratedly. Alex is starting to like this girl. She makes a mental note to invite her to have a beer with her sometime. Now that she’ll be staying on the ship for a while, it’ll be good to make some other friends on the team besides Sara. But that can come later, Alex thinks, as they exit the ship and make their way to prevent a murder.

 

At first, everything is going as planned. They identify Willem of Orange quickly, and get him to come with them to a tavern, thinking he’ll be safe from harm there. Alex is just beginning to relax; she’s not quite as used to time-travel as the rest of the team and constantly feels like she’s on the set of an old-timey movie, waiting for the director to yell “cut”. But the feeling of relaxation doesn’t last long. Suddenly, the door to the tavern bursts open. All Alex can see at first is an arm, carrying a gun. Then, she’s lifting Willem of Orange over her shoulder (she really wishes she isn’t restricted in her every movement by the ridiculous corset she’s wearing) and drags him to the door at the back of the room. Behind her, she can hear the rest of the team fighting of the intruder. All she sees is a flash before she’s out of the room, pulling a harried looking Willem through the kitchen of the tavern. As soon as she let’s go, he turns towards her with a look of anger and confusion. “That person was making an attempt on your life.” She states matter-of-factly. She knows Sara would’ve gone for something with a bit more flair (her bet is “What, never been saved by a woman before?”) but Alex has always preferred quick and practical language in situations like these.

 

Willem still looks suspicious. “Do you have any idea why? And have you ever seen that man before?” “I hardly had time to look at him with you tossing me across the room.” He says, regaining some of his composure. “Besides, I have many enemies. Among the Dutch and the Spanish alike.” “Well, then I suggest you make your way back to a place that is safe and you lay low for a couple of days.”

 

She refrains from commenting on the fact that one day, a mere four years away, one of his enemies will indeed be the death of him. “Who are you to give me orders?” He scoffs, but he makes his way to the door nonetheless. After checking if the coast is clear, he leaves, without so much as a glance at Alex.

 

She decides to get back to the front room to see if the rest of her team has managed to capture the anachronism. But the sounds of fighting have disappeared, and when she opens the door, Zari is the only person left in the room.

 

When they get back to the ship, Alex changes out of the horrible corset before joining the rest of the team on the bridge. She can almost physically sense Sara’s frustration at not managing to apprehend the intruder twice. And by now they’re certain it’s the same guy. “What could possibly connect the assassination of Willem in 1584 and whatever was going to happen in 1920?” She says, pacing up and down the room. Everyone is looking at Nate. “I have no idea, guys.” He says, putting up his hands apologetically. “I can’t think of anything which connects these two events. They have absolutely nothing in common as far as I know.”

 

“Uh-oh.” Ray says slowly. “What?” Sara says, whirling around to face him. “Well, what if it’s not about the events itself?” Sara shakes her head at him to indicate he has to explain further. Alex is getting a bad feeling in her stomach at the look on Ray’s face as he opens his mouth to add: “What if it’s us he’s after?”


	7. Alone

“Okay.” Sara says. They immediately accept Ray’s explanation. Alex knows that in their heart, most of them have been expecting what Ray just voiced. The strange man in the leather mask is after the Legends. “That still doesn’t explain who he is, or why he wants to kill us.” Zari speaks up quietly. “I might be able to help with that. I, uh, I took a picture of him.”

 

“You did what?” Sara asks incredulously. She puts her head in her arms exasperatedly. “You took a twenty-first century camera into 1580? Do you know what could’ve happened?” Zari just shrugs. “Well, nothing happened.” She says. Alex decides that bickering between the team isn’t going to solve anything. “Well, what’s done is done.” She tells Sara. The captain nods. She’ll have to work it out with Zari later. For now, they have a culprit to catch.

 

“Zari, can you upload the photo to Gideon so she can figure out who he is?” Zari nods and uplinks the photo to the screen. Even though Alex hadn’t gotten a good look at his face previously because of the mask, she immediately recognises the man based on his posture. “I believe I have found our man.” Gideon says, as she uploads information to the screen in front of them. Nate reads it out. “His name is Lucas Boroughs. He’s 23 years old. He has no record of previous violence; never been to prison, never been arrested, not even a speeding ticket.” Nate frowns. “It says here he has no family. No parents, no siblings, no grandparents. He’s completely alone.”

_Alone._ Alex thinks. Like her. Alone in a strange universe that is not her own. She feels a twinge of sympathy for the man. There is nothing worse than that. Unless… “Gideon?” Alex asks. “Could you pull up the historical records of what happened to Lucas in other timelines?” “Certainly, Agent Danvers.” Gideon responds. What Alex sees on the screen confirms her suspicions. Because there’s only one thing worse than being alone. Only one thing worse than having no one left. And that’s having had it all, the family, the love, the happiness, only to have it taken away.

 

Ray is the first to catch on to Alex’ train of thought. “It says here Lucas had a sister in a different timeline…” he says slowly. “What if he remembers her somehow?” Amaya nods, catching up. “And he blames our interference in the timeline for her non-existence.” In the ruckus which follows, everyone shouting versions of “But he can’t possibly remember that” and “How could he even know we exist?” no one notices Alex slip away.

 

As the door to the bridge closes behind her, Alex has to bend forward and grab her knees so she doesn’t fall forward. One word keeps spooking through her mind. _Alone._ She’s been sad. She’s grieved. She’s spent nights crying herself to sleep at the fact that Maggie has left her. But up until this moment, that’s all it has felt like. _Left._ As if she can still come back. As if one day she’ll be back at her door, with a bouquet of flowers and a hushed “I can’t live without you, Alex. And I can’t live without our children.” And Alex will open the door for her, and it will be happily ever after. Her, the woman she loves, and a house full of bright, laughing children.

 

But it’s taken her a trip to a different universe, to a different time, to finally realise that that is never going to happen. Maggie isn’t coming back. Not ever. And they’re never going to ride off into the sunset with a minivan full of their kids.

 

Alex falls over onto the floor. Her breathing is coming in sharp, hitched intervals, and her chest feels impossibly tight, tighter than the corset she’d been wearing that morning. It’s as if her skin is crushing her lungs together, to stop her from falling apart. She can feel a strong pressure behind her ears as she pushes her head forward into the metal of the wall. The cold of the material seeps into her forehead. The almost painful sensation slowly helps her back to her senses at least a little. She knows she has to get up. Up off that floor. After everything Sara has done for her, she can’t let her see that she’s still falling apart, more than she ever has before, over Maggie. Maggie, who left her more than four months ago with only a “See you around, Danvers.”

 

She pulls one leg up, then the other, moving slowly. As she finally wills her body into a standing position, she knows exactly what she needs. She goes to the break room, and makes herself a bottle of Scotch. After the 1920s, after seeing even Sara, the assassin who barrelled head-first into danger and could drink anyone under the table, worrying about her, she’d vowed to try and reign in her drinking. But not right now. Right now, she needs the mind-numbing sensation of the alcohol in her body. She needs it to loosen up her muscles, to free her chest from the constricting sensation. She pours herself a generous glass, vowing to at least sip it slowly instead of just throwing it back in one go.

 

After a few moments, she is joined in the break room by Mick. She doesn’t want to see anyone from the team right now, wants to be alone so the loneliness in her heart is matched by the loneliness of her surroundings. But she supposes that if it has to be anyone, at least it’s Mick. She knows he won’t be hoping to get a heart-to-heart out of her. He goes to the food fabricator, and joins Alex at the table with a fresh beer. They sit in silence for a few minutes. Then, Mick suddenly speaks up. Älex wonders if she was wrong in thinking that he wouldn’t want to have a heart-to-heart. She really doesn’t want to talk right now. “Girl trouble?” He asks simply.

 

“Yes.” Is her only reply. She’s really not about to have a deep conversation with Mick of all people. But Mick doesn’t seem to want anything else from her. They drink in silence for a little longer. Then, Mick pushes his fire-gun a few inches towards her on the table. She raises her head a little. “I feel always feel better when I set something on fire.” He says simply.

 

The barest hint of a smile flashes across Alex’ face. She’s almost certain that Mick wouldn’t offer his gun to just anyone. She’s tempted to take him up on the offer. Her coping strategies have always involved punching the nearest alien (excluding Kara, of course) as hard as possible. Figures that violence is also the first thing Mick would turn to.

 

But before she can pick up the gun, they are interrupted. Sara comes walks in the door quickly. Apparently the team has decided on its next course of action. When she sees them sitting there, drinking, she merely raises her eyebrow. Neither of them says anything. “We’ve decided to try and draw out Lucas so that we can capture him. You guys in?” Alex nods and gets up. There might not be any aliens around, but punching a time-travelling man hellbent on killing them is surely the next best thing.

 

“So when are we going?” Alex asks as they walk back towards the bridge. “We’ve decided to lure him to a military gala in 2016.” Sara explains. “That way, the bystanders will be more than able to protect themselves, so we don’t have to worry about anyone else getting hurt. And the fact that we’ll be in 2016 means that neither his nor our advanced technology poses a threat to the timeline.” Alex just nods. The plan seems solid. Well, as solid as anything involving the Legends can ever be, she’s beginning to learn.

 

They strap into their seats for the time-jump for 2016. When they get there, Alex’ stomach feels like it’s doing somersaults and she can barely feel her face. She suspects the effects of time travel are enhanced by the fact that they’re jumping more than four centuries into the future. But she can’t deny she feels at least a little glad at being in a time that’s closer to her own. History has always fascinated her, but even for her as a special agent, constantly monitoring her speech and behaviour in order not to interfere with the timeline is a little exhausting.

 

“Mick and Zari, I want you guys to stay on the ship in case we need an extraction.” Sara orders. Mick doesn’t seem to mind having to miss the gala. Alex suspects that he wouldn’t feel at home at a gala for military and police anywhere. “Everyone else, let’s meet back here in fifteen minutes. I expect you all know what to wear.” Alex sees Amaya glance a Nate quickly, who nods at her. Clearly, Amaya is the only one who needs help figuring out what to wear in the twenty-first century.

 

Alex decides to wear an elegant dark-blue pantsuit. After the past two days, she’s all too happy to be back in trousers. She’s glad that more practical clothing finally becomes socially acceptable for women in the twenty-first century.

 

Sara doesn’t seem to share her concerns on that topic. She returns from the clothing fabricator in another floor-length gown. This one is light pink, with a halter top going into two spaghetti straps near her neck and a large amount of tulle from the waist down. The top of the dress is decorated with beads and sequins, and Sara has half of her hair up in two braids which turn into a rosette at the back of her head. She’s even dyed the tips of her hair bright pink for effect.

 

Her lipstick is a glittery pink, an even her eyeshadow appears to have the same colour. Her shoes, which are the only part of her outfit that’s not pink, are dark gold glittery open-toed sandal heels, with little cut-out leaves.

 

“I don’t understand why you always choose such impractical fighting clothes.” Alex remarks. Sara grins as she hitches up her dress, revealing her legs. She’s wearing several leather holsters which contain a variety of knives and guns. “Dresses leave more room to hide weapons.” Alex just rolls her eyes.

 

They make their way to the cargo bay once again. Even though it’s been less than two days, Alex can feel herself get used to the time-travelling routine. Ray is already waiting for them on the bridge in a sharp suit which looks a bit comical on his skinny frame. They’re quickly joined by Nate and Amaya. Nate is wearing a dark blue suit, and Alex is unsurprised to find that Amaya has opted for a practical jumpsuit much like her own. “So, what’s our cover?” Ray asks excitedly.

 

“Hopefully, this will all be over soon so we won’t need a cover. But just in case: Ray, you’re a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who designs weapons for the army.” Ray looks nonplussed. “I would never do that.” He mutters, but Sara just ignores him. “Nate, you’re from a family with generations of men in the army. Amaya is your wife, who you met while touring in Africa.” Nate looks excited. “And what about you guys?” Ray asks again. Sara grins.

 

“Alex is a commander in the army, the youngest woman to ever hold that position. And I am her hot trophy wife.” Nate wolf-whistles. Alex feels the familiar tightening in her chest. It’s just a mission, she tells herself. She’s been undercover a number of times. Memories of her and Maggie undercover in the alien fight club come to mind without her permission. She shakes her head, taking Sara’s arm resolutely in her own. She can do this. She can be professional. She can help save the Legends. She can keep fighting. Keep fighting for other people. Even though she, Alex Danvers, has no other people anymore. Even though she’s alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. Sara is wearing pink, again. But I just couldn't resist: I gave her the exact outfit I'm going to wear to my university's prom tomorrow.


	8. Hot Blonde Army Wife

As they make their way into the gala, Alex feels almost as out of place as she did in the sixteenth century. Since she’s an actual special agent, pretending to be a military woman isn’t that far from the truth. But as they walk around the giant room, with its elegant banners advertising several charities for veterans, she doesn’t recognise herself in the people milling about, to say the least. They’re all wearing expensive suits and gowns, with designer watches to match. Alex knows that up high, this is what the military looks like. But it leaves her with a sense of uneasiness; she’s much more comfortable fighting side by side out in the field with her fellow agents than she is here, among these privileged (mostly white, mostly male) people, who probably hold their positions thanks to wealth and legacy rather than actual capabilities.

“Spread out across the room.” Sara instructs. “We need to find our guy as soon as possible. Since he’s a fellow time-traveller, we have to consider the fact that he might already be here, waiting for us.” They all nod in understanding. Ray walks off towards the bar, where several groups of people are standing around. Alex watches him introduce himself to the first people he sees. For Ray, with his natural enthusiasm and position as a tech-genius, this method of seeing as many people as quickly as possible seems quite suitable. He glances back at them, and Sara nods once to confirm his actions.

“Looks like Ray has that side covered. Nate, I want you to go over to the other side, where the younger couples are hanging out. Pretend to introduce your new wife to them.” Nate is sporting the same excited expression he had on the ship. At least someone is happy to be pretending to be an undercover couple, Alex thinks to herself.

“Care to dance, darling?” Sara says with a full-blown grin. Alex knows that it’s just for the sake of the mission, but Sara’s grin still does something to her that she can’t explain. She remembers her previous resolution about not getting involved with Sara, but decides to throw caution to the wind for this one evening. Sara won’t think anything of it. Besides, she should stay in character, she tells herself. 

She rewards the grin with one of her own. “With you, sweetheart? Anytime.” She grabs Sara’s hand boldly and starts leading her towards the dancefloor. She almost laughs as she can practically feel the woman fighting herself not to pull her arm back. The woman is so used to being in control, she deserves to follow for a night, Alex figures. Finally, Sara’s arm relaxes and she let’s herself be led. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Alex whispers breathily into Sara’s ear as she spins the woman around to face her. She can feel Sara shivering at the hot air blowing onto her neck. She pulls back a little, careful not to let their little act go too far.

Once they’re on the dancefloor, the distance between them only grows smaller. Alex decides that the best way to cover as much ground as possible, all the while surveying the surrounding dancers, is to spin across the dancefloor in a set of quick motions. She’s not quite as graceful as Sara, but she can hold her own. When she leads Sara through a complicated set of twirls, to finally land in her arms, the blonde is looking at her with an expression of surprise and fascination. 

“You never told me you had moves, Danvers.” She says, eyebrows arched. Alex shrugs. “There are lots of things you don’t know about me.” She says, repeating her line from the previous day back to her. Then, more softly, she adds: “Maggie and I took dance classes together. To prepare for the wedding.” Her grip on Sara’s hands falters, and the blonde takes the lead from her seamlessly. She guides Alex through a complicated set of steps, and by the end the movement of her feet is all Alex can focus on. The blonde has once again managed to distract her from her thoughts about Maggie, but not in the way Alex was first expecting when she boarded the Waverider. 

When the song ends, Alex is relieved to finally get the chance to catch her breath. She steps a little further away from Sara, the proximity of the blonde’s ice-blue eyes a little overwhelming from up close once they’re not dancing, but she can’t bear to let go of her arms. Besides, Commander Danvers from the army wouldn’t ever let go of her beautiful wife anyway. 

As they stand there in the silence between two songs, a man comes up to them. He’s middle aged, with a moustache that Alex swears is glued on, and a significant beer-gut. Definitely not a soldier, at least not anymore. Alex doesn’t like the look in his eyes as he walks towards them. “Look at you pretty things!” He sneers, as he puts his hand on Alex’ arm. She can feel the sweat on his palm even through the sleeves of her suit. “Get your hands of my wife.” Sara says sharply. Alex can hear the threat in her voice. The man takes his hand away, but doesn’t leave. “And feisty, too!” He says, still grinning.

“Why don’t you ladies come back with me to my hotel room, hm? Have some fun?” In the corner of her eye, Alex can see Sara reaching for the hem of her own dress. She turns away from the man and quickly puts her hand on the blonde’s arm, stopping before Sara can pull out one of the countless weapons she knows are hidden below her skirt. “He’s not worth it.” Then, more quietly, whispering in her ear: “Besides, I’m the army woman. You’re supposed to be the hot, dumb trophy wife, remember?” She waits for Sara to nod before letting go of her arm.

“I would appreciate it if you left us alone from now on, sir.” The words taste vile in her mouth. She hates being polite to these perverts. But she can’t risk blowing the mission. “Otherwise, I’ll have to take it up with my commander.” She says in a more threatening voice. She motions in the direction of an imposing general. She has no clue who he is, but from the medals on his uniform and the awe of the people standing around him she can tell that he is someone powerful. 

The man besides them gulps, then nods quickly. He walks away in the direction of the bar without so much as an apology for the two women.

Sara watches the man walk away. From the expression on her face, Alex practically knows that she is imagining herself viciously hurting the man. She can’t really blame her. Alex herself is angry. Angry that even in her own time, she’s supposed to endure these remarks and to feel lucky that she’s not being burned as a witch. And it isn’t that she doesn’t feel lucky; she’s immensely grateful to have been born in a time where most of the time nasty comments are the only thing she has to suffer through because of her sexuality. But there is still so much to be done, she thinks. She wishes desperately that by the time her own children are old enough to worry about relationships, it won’t matter who they love.

But right now is not the time to worry about that (although, she thinks, every moment is exactly the time to worry about that). Right now, it is her turn to distract the woman in front of her. So she leads her into another dance, this one slightly more reigned in so as to not attract any more unwanted attention. “What is the rest of the team doing?” Alex asks Sara, to fully bring back the blonde’s focus to the mission at hand. Sara quickly snaps out of her thoughts. She can be hot-headed and easily frustrated sometimes, but she’s gotten good at returning her attention to what matters. Because by now she’s learned that the mission comes first.

She leans over Alex’ shoulder as they dance, watching for the other members of their team. “Ray is still introducing himself to anyone who will listen.” She laughs. “Seems like the people who just talked to him are warning the other people around them about the over-eager techie.” Alex smiles in amusement. “And Nate and Amaya seem to be socialising with the young and excited.” As they turn around, Alex sees them for herself.

Amaya is surrounded by women that seem to be the wives of the other soldiers. She looks like she wants to be anywhere but there, as Alex watches the women point at various people around the room. Alex suspects they are gossiping and commenting on the questionable style choices around them. When she catches one of the women pointing at her and Sara, she flashes her a broad grin and leads the blonde into a daring dip. 

Sara raises her eyebrows when she’s facing Alex again. “What was that for?” “Just wanted to show those jealous ladies over here that I have the prettiest woman in the room on my arm.” Sara doesn’t comment, just smiles. And Alex had thought her other smiles were glorious. This one is something else entirely. It’s not the smile of an assassin, of a woman who knows what she wants and knows how to get it. Instead it’s open, and soft, and the most genuine smile Alex has ever seen. Alex thinks to herself that this exact expression should be displayed in the dictionary under the term ‘smile’. It warms her heart. 

But she catches herself. It’s just for show, Alex reminds herself. It’s not real, and it shouldn’t be. Not for her, and not for Sara. She wishes that she could go somewhere else for a moment, somewhere where she isn’t constantly staring into those piercing blue eyes that look as if they might hold actual ice. Somewhere where there aren’t those lips, painted a glittery shade of pink and looking as if they can actually kiss mortal wounds better. Somewhere where there aren’t those darned freckles, which beg to be touched and mapped and painted like galaxies. Somewhere where she doesn’t get goose bumps every time those lean, wonderful, perfect, muscular arms brush against her. 

She rolls her eyes at herself. She is getting ridiculous, sounding like a lovesick teenager. Freckles like galaxies? She shakes her head, happy the blonde is currently turned away from her, observing the room, so she doesn’t notice the slight blush that’s creeping up Alex’ face. 

She’s happy to be pulled out of her thoughts, when Sara suddenly freezes up in her arms. “Where are Nate and Amaya?” She says quietly but urgently. Alex looks around the room. She can’t seem to spot Amaya between the army wives. And Nate, who she swears was joking around with the other soldiers just moments ago, is nowhere to be seen either. “I can’t find them.” Alex whispers into Sara’s ear. Sara curses. “I swear, if those two are off somewhere working on each other instead of on the mission…” Despite her annoyed comment, she looks worried.

In their two days, Alex has barely seen Sara worried. Angry, excited, disappointed, even vulnerable, but not worried. With her League training, she doesn’t have much reason to worry. Even now, she’s not worried about herself. And Alex is starting to realise more and more that what Sara cares most about in the universe is her team. 

“Let’s go find them.” She suggests, pulling the blonde off the dancefloor behind her gently. Ray has already spotted them leaving the dancefloor, and is making his way towards them. They walk in the direction where Nate and Amaya where mere moments ago. “Did you notice that door before?’ Sara says as she tugs on Alex’ hand sharply. Now, Alex sees it too. Behind the group of people is a small door painted the same shade of beige as the walls. They run towards it, no longer caring about blowing their cover. As they reach the threshold, the door bursts open. Alex immediately recognizes Nate. He’s completely out of breath, and Alex has never seen the expression on his face before. “He took Amaya.” Nate manages to get out.


	9. Get Some Sleep, Sara

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I am so sorry for the long wait between updates. My laptop broke, and then I was superbusy with midterm essays and exams. But today is my birthday, so I decided to take some time off and write :) Hope you enjoy!

They make their way back to the ship as quickly as possible, knowing fully well that by now Lucas can be anywhere throughout history. The whole team seems quiet and upset, their usual light-hearted banter absent for once. Alex is surprised to find how much she misses it; Nate teasing Ray, and Mick grumbling about anything and everything.

When they get to the ship, Sara orders them to be back on the bridge as soon as they’ve changed out of their gala clothes. She puts her arm on Nate’s shoulder to tell him to wait. “We’re going to get her back, Nate. That’s a promise.” The captain tells him. Nate just nods. Alex has never heard Sara sound so serious.

Mick and Zari join the rest of the team on the bridge when they return. The Legends who went to the gala look at each other uneasily. None of them want to be the one to tell Mick that Amaya is missing. Finally, Sara takes the lead. Informing the other members of her team that one of them is missing unfortunately falls into her responsibilities as captain. “Mick, things didn’t go exactly as planned.” She starts. “Tell me something new.” He remarks, taking a generous sip of his beer. Sara takes a deep breath. “They took Amaya.” Mick finally turns his face towards her, getting up from where he’s sitting on the stairs. “They what? You idiots let them take Amaya?” Sara just nods. Alex can see clearly on her face that the blonde blames herself for what has happened to her teammate. She decides to step in.

“There’s nothing any of us could have done. The most important thing now is that we get her back.” “She’s right.” Ray says. Alex looks at him gratefully. Sara nods, a look of determination appearing on her face. The captain knows exactly how to put her emotions away and get to work. “Nate, I want you to go back into the library to start looking for them throughout history.” “Like that’s worked before.” Nate says dejectedly, but he starts walking in that direction anyway. “Mick, Zari and Ray: I want you guys to get some rest. There is nothing you can do at the moment anyway, so it’s best if you’re in good shape if we need you.” The three nod, and make their way to their quarters. 

“What are you going to do?” Alex asks Sara, who’s already walking towards the screen in the lounge. “I am going to look into the anachronism map. At some point, this guy has to make a mistake. And when he does, I will be there to catch him.” Alex follows her to the lounge. “Not like this you won’t. Sara, you need to get some rest too.” Sara shakes her head. “Not while Amaya is still out there. I can rest later.” She’s staring at the screen, swiping up and down through the map. Alex sighs. She takes the woman’s arms, forcing her to turn towards her until she’s looking her in the eyes. “What you told your team is also true for you. You’ve been awake for almost twenty hours. If we’re going to face Lucas, you need to be at your best.”

Sara shakes her head. Alex is hardly surprised at the blonde’s stubbornness. “I have to keep watching this map.” “I’ll watch it.” Alex suggests. Sara looks at her. “You’ve hardly had more sleep than me.” Alex realizes she’ll never succeed in getting the blonde to go to bed, so she decides to make a different suggestion. “Fine. You can sleep on the couch, here in the lounge. I’ll wake you up in two hours, and we can trade places. If anything happens, I’ll let you know.” Sara looks at her for a few moments, considering. Then, she nods, defeated. “Who knew you were such a mama bear.” She says with a grin, her face tilted to one side as if she’s observing the agent. Alex doesn’t say anything, just goes to a drawer and grabs a blanket for Sara. She tosses it on the couch, and then makes her way to a chair in front of the screen. 

Ten minutes later, she turns around to look if Sara has actually heeded her advice. The blonde is sleeping, wrapped in the blanket Alex gave her. Even in sleep, the worry has not quite disappeared from her face. Alex sighs, quickly turning back to observe the screen. She knows all too well the feeling of having someone from her team disappear. She starts to wonder if there is anything she could’ve done differently. Maybe if she hadn’t been so wrapped up in Sara, and the perverted stranger talking to them… Even though she’s told the blonde not to blame herself, she has trouble following her own advice. 

Two hours later, she makes her way to the couch to wake up Sara. She’d debated letting her sleep, but even Alex doesn’t want to face Sara when she’s angry. The blonde wakes quickly, and Alex doubts that she’s been sleeping all too well. Still, some rest is better than no rest at all. As the agent drops down onto the couch, exhaustion suddenly settles over her. With all the worry surrounding Amaya’s kidnapping, she hadn’t realised how tired she was. Now, as her head touches the pillow, sleep comes over her almost instantly. 

When Sara comes to wake her, Alex looks at the clock. The blonde clearly has no reservations about letting her sleep longer, she realizes as she sees that three hours have passed. But she decides not to comment, knowing how worried the blonde already is. She’s just happy she’s finally realised that getting at least a little sleep is important. 

After another hour of staring at the anachronism map, Alex decides that it is time to do something else for a moment. It doesn’t seem like their kidnapper is going to do anything anytime soon anyway. So she makes her way to the library to check in on Nate.

When she arrives, she finds Nate in what she can only describe as a dishevelled mess. His hair is standing up in spikes, presumably where he’s run his hands through it over and over, and papers and books are scattered across the table of the library. In between the papers are empty cups of coffee. Alex knocks on the door, entering when she realizes that she’s not going to get a response out of Nate. He doesn’t notice her presence until she’s standing at the table right in front of him. 

He looks up from his books, startled. “Hey, Alex.” He says tiredly. “Hi Nate.” She responds. She stops herself from asking whether he has found anything. From the state of the room, the answer is obvious. “Don’t you think you should get some rest?” She says to him gently. He shakes his head quickly. “No, I can’t.” He says quickly. “Not while that monster still has Amaya.” Alex opens her mouth to protest that he’s of no use to anyone if he’s exhausted, but he beats her to it. “What would you be doing if the woman you loved was out there?” Alex closes her mouth, nodding in understanding. She pulls out a chair opposite Nate and sits down. She doesn’t even want to think about what she’d do if it was Maggie out there.

“That is the danger in our line of work.” She says softly. Nate looks up at her, and she can see that she finally has some of his attention. “Did this ever happen to you?” “No, thankfully. Maggie was never kidnapped.” She takes a sharp breath as she says her name. Then, after a pause, she adds: “But I was.” “What happened?” Nate asks. “She broke a murderer out of jail because he was the ransom my captor asked for me.” Alex responds. Nate nods slowly. “Then you understand that I would do anything to get her back.” “I know.” She replies, getting up from her chair. “But the best thing you can do for her right now is get some sleep.” She says, as she picks up some of the empty coffee cups. 

She brings the cups to the break room, before making her way back towards the lounge. As she nears the door, she can hear voices. She recognizes Sara’s voice immediately. But there’s someone else. A man. As Alex walks into the room, her blood runs cold. Right there on the screen is Lucas’ face. In the background, she can see Amaya. The woman has a nasty cut on her face, but appears alright otherwise. 

“What do you want from us?” Sara says, as Alex quickly joins her in the lounge. “It’s simple, really.” The man sneers. From the pictures they’d found of him in their search, Alex could never have imagined the look on his face right now. Loss does strange things to people, she thinks to herself. “Enlighten me.” Sara said curtly. “I have your teammate, you have a timeship. You take me back in time and save my sister from being erased from the timeline, and I will give you back your teammate.” In the background, Alex can see Amaya furiously shaking her head. Even though she has a gag in her mouth, her intentions are clear. She’s telling the team not to give in. 

“Listen, I’m really sorry about what happened to your sister.” Sara says empathetically, trying a different tactic. “I had a sister too. I know what it’s like to lose her. But you don’t have to do this.” Lucas grimaces again. “But I do. You think you understand? Well, you don’t. You still have parents. You still have a team. My sister, she was my everything. She was the only thing I had. And you took that away from me. And you’re going to give her back to me within the next twenty-four hours, or the pretty lady over there dies. After all, you have plenty of teammates left for me to take. Until you finally come to your senses.” Before they can do anything, the screen goes black. Sara punches the wall next to the screen, letting out a frustrated yell. 

“Sara.” Someone behind them says. The two women turn around, both surprised to see the entire team standing there. Zari shrugs. “Our kidnapper friend wasn’t exactly quiet.” Sara sighs. “At least Amaya is still alive.” She says. “Yeah, for the next twenty-four hours!” Nate exclaims angrily. “Why can’t we just give him his sister back?” “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.” Mick remarks factually. “Besides, you know what could happen.” Sara says, her voice more sympathetic. “We could make things even worse. Amaya wouldn’t want us to risk history for her.” Now it’s Nate’s turn to punch the wall in anger.

Suddenly, Ray steps forward. “I might have something.” Everyone turns towards him expectantly. “Well?” Sara asks. “You know how everyone has a certain impact on history?” The team just nods, figuring they’ll just have to wait for Ray to eventually get to the point. “Well, I was thinking that was kind of like a temporal signature. And everyone would have their own unique temporal signature. Anyway, since we know Amaya’s signature, we might be able to track her.” Sara nods curtly. “Well then, get to work. Take Zari with you.” Even though it’s good news, Alex knows Sara realizes that there is no time to feel relief yet. They’ll be able to feel relief when Amaya is back on the ship safe and sound. 

“You should get some sleep now.” Alex suggests again to the blonde. “There is nothing you can do while Ray is tracking her, and he’ll wake us as soon as he find anything.” When Sara shakes her head again stubbornly, Alex just rolls her eyes. “You heard what he just said. If Amaya has a specific temporal signature, that means that she’ll be even more likely to cause an anachronism. I need to be watching that map now more than ever. Besides, it’s your turn to get some rest.” Alex nods, giving in. She lies down on the couch, wrapping herself up in the blanket while Sara sits down in front of the screen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. It looks like as a birthday present I will get to see Caity Lotz at a convention in Genrmany in June- I could not be more excited!


	10. The Vanishing Point

Alex wakes up with a start when Ray barges into the room. Sara jumps up from where she’s sitting. “Found anything?” When Ray shakes his head, she deflates visibly. “That’s just the thing. I can’t find her anywhere. It’s like she’s outside of time.” Sara looks up quickly. “Outside of time?” A look of realisation passes over Ray’s face. “It can’t be.” Sara shakes her head. “We destroyed that place.” “Destroyed what?” Alex asks. Both team members turn to face her. “The Vanishing Point.” They say in unison.

Alex shakes her head to show that she still doesn’t understand. “The Vanishing Point is where the time-masters used to live. It is the only place which exists outside of time.” “That would explain why I haven’t been able to find Amaya…” Ray adds contemplatively. “Well, then let’s go there and get Amaya back.” Alex suggest. “Well, the thing is, we blew up the Vanishing Point two years ago. I didn’t think it existed anymore.” Sara explains. “He must’ve rebuilt it.” Ray says. Sara nods. “We have to try. It’s not like we have any other options.” 

She turns on the intercom to summon the rest of the team. One by one, they arrive at the bridge, in various stages of sleepiness. Zari is still wearing her pajamas, and Mick has a bathrobe on. After almost everyone has arrived, there is still one member missing. Sara frowns. “Where is Nate?” “He seemed pretty exhausted earlier. I think coffee was the only thing keeping him up, so he might’ve collapsed.” Alex suggests. “I’ll go check on him.” Sara nods, as Alex makes her way to the library.

Finding the library empty, she decides to check Nate’s bedroom. Perhaps he’s decided to follow her advice and get some sleep. But the man is nowhere to be seen. After she’s checked the bathroom to be sure, she makes her way back to the bridge. “I couldn’t find him.” She tells the others. Sara frowns again. “Where could he have gone? I thought he’d be the first to want to find Amaya.”

“Oh no.” Alex suddenly exclaims. “What is it?” Sara asks. “Well, I was talking to Nate earlier. I might’ve mentioned how when I was kidnapped, Maggie broke a murderer out of prison to get me back.” Sara groans. “Gideon, where’s the jumpship?” “I’m afraid Mr Heywood has taken the ship for a little joyride.” “He’s planning to help Lucas get his sister back.” Zari realizes. “We have to stop him.” Sara says resolutely. “Gideon, patch me through to the jumpship.” 

When Nate’s face appears on the screen, everyone is visibly relieved to see that he’s still on the ship. At least the damage isn’t done yet, Alex thinks. “Nate, you can’t do this.” Sara reasons. “I told you what would happen.” “There’s nothing you can do to stop me.” Nate says, his eyes not on the screen but instead on the timestream outside of his window. “I need to get Amaya back. And I will do anything it takes. I love her.” “Nate, Amaya wouldn’t want it like this. There is another way.” “Yeah?” Nate says sarcastically. “Because from where I’m standing, this seems like the only way to save her.”

“It’s not.” Ray says empathetically. Finally, Nate’s eyes stray to the screen. “We found a way to track her. He has her at the Vanishing Point.” “I thought the Vanishing Point was destroyed.” Nate says, but his tone is already less argumentative. “Apparently not.” Sara says curtly. “I need you to come back to the ship, and then we can go find her and get her back.” Nate hesitates for a moment, then nods. “Yes, captain.” Alex sees the jumpship turn around, before the screen goes black again.

“Well, at least we avoided messing up history even more.” Ray says optimistically. “Yeah, for the moment.” Zari says, but even she seems relieved. “Alright, time to get ready for battle.” Sara announces. “There’s only one of him and six of us. The only way he was able to beat us before was because he had us divided and had the element of surprise on his side. In a flat-out fight on open ground, we should have the advantage. This should be an easy fight. But be careful anyway. We don’t know what weapons he’s got.” The team nods, as they all make their way to their rooms to gear up. 

Alex opens her bag for the first time in two days. If she’s going to be fighting, she wants to be wearing her DEO uniform. Her fingers touch something made of hard metal as she pulls out the uniform. She grabs it and gets it out of her bag. When she realizes what it is, she grins. She’d almost forgotten she’d brought this along. 

“What’s that?” Sara asks with a nod towards the item in her hand. “Alien gun.” Alex says, grinning again. Sara raises her eyebrows appreciatively. “Nice.” She says, before continuing to gear up. Alex looks at the weapon in her hand. She figures that when fighting a lone wolf on the Vanishing Point, it won’t really matter that her weapon is from another universe and another planet. She can’t do any damage to the timeline if she’s outside of time, after all.

When they meet the rest of the team in the cargo bay, the mood is decidedly more grim than before their previous expeditions. They all know that this is probably their only shot at getting Amaya back. If something goes wrong now, it could have disastrous consequences. But thinking like that won’t help, Alex decides. Now is the time to get out there and fight to protect this team, this team that’s taken her in when she’s at her worst and made her feel welcome.

“Ready?” Sara asks. They nod. The cargo bay door opens onto a flat metal surface. Sara looks at Ray. “You’re sure they’re here?” Ray nods. “I tracked Amaya’s signature all the way here. Besides, it’s the only place her where it seems at all possible for someone to live. The rest is, well, rubble.” Sara nods. “Well then. Let’s get Amaya back.” 

They head outside. Alex looks around her quickly, both to scan her surroundings because of the upcoming fight and out of curiosity. The area around her reminds her a little of space. They’re walking on a large sheet of metal, and in the distance she can see something resembling a warehouse. The space around them is shrouded in darkness. 

They arrive at the warehouse after a few minutes of walking. The ship is docked a little further away than Alex would like: it’s not exactly positioned for a quick getaway. But if everything goes well, they won’t need a getaway. “So what’s the plan?” Zari asks. Sara shrugs. “We go in and get Amaya.” “Sounds like a great plan.” Mick remarks. Alex can’t tell if he means it sarcastically. Suddenly, she thinks of something. “Wait a second. This guy, he’s done a lot of research on all of you.” Sara nods, not yet understanding what Alex is getting at.

“Well, he might know everything about you guys, but he doesn’t know anything about me.” “Are you sure?” Sara asks. “You were with us at the dance, and the ball, and on the ship… He’s probably seen you already.” Alex shrugs. “Maybe. But it’s worth a shot.” Sara nods. “Alright. We’ll go in, distract him, and you can try to find another way inside.” “How are you getting inside?” Alex asks. “Ray, you’re up.” Sara says, gesturing towards him. As the atom blasters on Ray’s suit fire up, Alex starts running towards the other side of the building. She doesn’t think it will be of much use; the team has Lucas outnumbered by far. Still, it’s worth a shot.

The door of the hangar explodes off its hinges, and Sara is the first across the threshold. She knows the explosion must’ve been loud enough to tip Lucas off about their presence. And sure enough, the man comes running towards them within seconds. “The Legends?” He says, and Sara can see the fear in his eyes. For once, things are not going according to his plan. She grins. “I guess you underestimated us. Give up now, and we will let you go. We never intended for any of this to happen.” 

“But it did.” He says slowly, a look of determination returning to his face. “And because of you, my sister doesn’t exist.” As he finishes the sentence, he pulls a gun out of his pocket. “Guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way.” Sara says, sighing. She whips out her bow staff, as she rolls towards the other side of the room, effectively dodging his bullets. “A little help here?” She shouts at her team, as Lucas pulls another, much more dangerous looking weapon off the wall. Ray is already behind her, shooting his atom blasters towards Lucas. But Lucas doesn’t seem to be frightened by the weapon. He pulls the trigger of the device in his hands instead, and the blast of energy is directed back towards Ray’s suit. Sara snaps her head towards Ray as he’s knocked back into the wall. 

“Hey!” Someone shouts. Sara recognizes Mick as he enters the room. “No one gets to hurt Haircut but me.” He says, pointing his fire gun towards Lucas. Sara wants to shout at him that it won’t help; if Lucas can deflect blasts from an atom gun, he will surely be able to resist a little fire. But then Mick is joined by Zari. Together, they fire towards Lucas, Mick with fire, Zari with wind. Lucas pulls the trigger of his gun again, and the streams meet in the middle. The fire and storm battle the gun, slowly winning ground. Now that his weapon is distracted, Sara decides to get in on the action. She pulls out her bowstaff, and runs towards him. But before she’s made it across the room, the strange weapon that Lucas is holding loses its battle with Mick and Zari. Lucas is pushed back by the blast. 

Realising he can’t outfight the Legends like this, he runs away into the corridor. Sara follows him, quickly gaining ground. But before she can reach him, he ducks into another doorway. Sara dives after him. “Amaya!” She exclaims, as she recognizes the woman who’s sitting in the room, tied to a chair. But before she can free her friend, Lucas reaches her. He pulls out a knife she didn’t even realise he was holding, and sets it to Amaya’s throat. “I tried to give you a chance to do this right away.” He says, his face scrunched up in anger. “Now, because I’m a nice man, I’m going to give you that chance one more time. Take your timeship to rescue my sister, or your friend dies. Your choice.” He says, as he applies more pressure to the knife at Amaya’s throat.

“Don’t give in to him, Sara!” Amaya shouts, the gag in her mouth ripped off by the knife. Sara has a look of despair on her face. She doesn’t want to risk history, but she knows that whatever happens she cannot let her friend die. She already has a long list of deaths she’s responsible for; she can’t bear to lose anyone else. “Choose. Quicker.” The man says in short bursts of anger. Sara can see the knife at Amaya’s throat starting to draw blood. 

Suddenly, a door at the back of the room bursts open. The look of surprise is evident on Lucas’ face as he turns around; but before he can say anything, he is hit straight in the chest with a blast of the alien gun. “Alex.” Sara exclaims, the relief so overwhelming that she has to sit down on the ground. Amaya takes a deep, gulping breath as the knife leaves her throat. Alex runs towards them, quickly slicing up the ropes tying Amaya to the chair. “It’s over now.” She says, as the woman slumps into her arms, exhausted.


	11. Alex Wants Her Own Bed

As they walk back to the ship, Alex senses the relief of the team. Ray is happily blabbering on about something or other, and even Zari seems to walk with her shoulders a little less slumped. Nate and Amaya are walking behind the rest of the team, Nate’s arm around her shoulder. Amaya seems too emotionally and physically exhausted to shrug it off, and Alex can’t blame her for craving positive human contact right now.

“Wait, what the hell is that?” Sara exclaims, as they arrive at the cargo door. Alex follows her gaze to find she is looking at Mick. The man appears to be carrying someone. “Is that Lucas body?” Zari exclaims in disgust. Mick just shrugs. “Haircut told me to take him.” The entire team turns around to look at Ray instead. “I, uh, I just figured we had to examine him a bit more.” He says awkwardly. “Examine him?” Sara demands. “I think it’s pretty clear how he died. Cause of death: alien gun.” “No, no, that’s not what I meant.” Ray explains quickly. “He remembered his sister, even though she didn’t exist in this timeline. I thought we should get Gideon to run some scans on him to figure out how it is that he remembers. So that maybe we can prevent something like this from happening again.”

Sara nods. “Alright, sounds like a good idea. But you can get started on that tomorrow. Today, I suggest we all get some rest. We’re going to need it, after the night we’ve just had. Especially you, Amaya.” She adds with a pointed look towards her and Nate. Nate gives her a mock salute. “Aye aye, Captain.” He says, before he starts to walk away towards his room, the rest of the team not far behind. 

After they’ve all left, Sara takes a deep breath. Her shoulders slump, and her eyelids droop a little. Alex can see that for the past few hours, she’s held herself together by worry and sheer force of will. She is close to the brink of exhaustion. “Come on.” Alex says gently, putting an arm around the other woman to steer her towards the bedroom.

When they get there, Sara doesn’t even bother changing into pajamas. She takes off her jeans and her jacket, and climbs straight into bed. Alex remembers her resolution of the last night, that she needs to get her own bed soon. But not tonight, she thinks. Tonight, they’re both going to sleep long and deep, to recover from their worry and exhaustion. Alex is surprised to find that it is already evening again on the Waverider when she looks at the alarm clock. The past twenty-four hours haven’t felt at all like a normal day, but apparently it is already her third evening on the Waverider again.

She contemplates this as she climbs into bed besides Sara, who is already fast asleep, the worry finally disappeared from her face. It feels at once like an eternity has passed: she’s literally travelled through centuries, and she’s already experienced one of the no doubt most worrying experiences the team has ever undergone. On the other hand, it feels like it’s still Valentine’s Day; like if she were back at her apartment, only a few hours would have passed. She thinks about her earth then, for the first time at least since Amaya’s kidnapping. She knows that once she decides to go back, she’ll be dropped off a mere day later that her departure. Still, she can’t help but wonder what’s going on at home. Has Kara found her message? And how has she responded? Even though Alex is usually the one worrying about Kara (despite her invincibility) she knows that her sister will hardly be thrilled to see that she’s run off to another earth. At the same time, she knows that Kara, with her heart of gold and more compassion than three normal people all together, will understand why she had to go.

Despite her exhaustion, it takes Alex a long time to fall asleep. Images keep running through her head, images of Kara being knocked down from the sky by an alien too strong even for the girl of steel, of J’onn knocked out cold because she’s not there to back him up, of the DEO blown to pieces by illegal weapons. When she does fall asleep, it is only to dream more off the images that plagued her when she was awake. She wakes up before Sara, and decides to go train to work the worry and tension out of her body. The assassin doesn’t even wake up when she leaves the bed, and Alex knows that if her reflexes aren’t even triggered by her getting up, she must be truly knackered. She pulls the blanket up over Sara’s shoulders, taking one last look at the peacefully sleeping blonde as she walks away. 

Even though she’s woken up beside Sara in her bed four times already, she’s never seen or taken the time to see the blonde lying there like this. Her hair is sprawled out over the pillow, but other than that she has her limbs pulled closely towards her chest. She’s lying there all curled up, like she’s protecting her body from hurt, even in sleep. It’s hard to imagine that this woman, who looks so tiny now against the large bed, used to be one of the most dangerous assassins in the world, before she decided to use her powers for something greater. Alex can’t help but feel some sadness for the little girl that the woman lying there used to be, before she endured more hurt than most would endure in three lifetimes. 

She sighs, pulling herself away from the sight and towards the training room. The ship is unusually quiet, she thinks to herself. The rest of the team is no doubt of in their quarters sleeping as soundly as Sara. Alex is glad that they’re finally getting some rest again; she’s not too eager to experience Nate over-caffeinated and exhausted again. 

After a good two hours of training, Alex decides that there is no way that Sara is not awake yet. She decides to check in on the woman in her bedroom, before heading over for breakfast. “Hey, Alex.” Sara says with a broad smile. And to see Sara like that, finally happy and relaxed again, warms Alex’s heart more than she can reasonably justify. “Hi Sara.” She responds, sitting down on the edge of the bed where the blonde is still lying. “Did you sleep well?” She asks her. “I slept very well, thanks for letting me sleep in. How about you though? Didn’t seem like you could sleep that well last night. Nightmares?” Alex just nods. “Been there too many times myself.” The blonde says, understanding clear in her voice. “Want to talk about it?” Alex shrugs. “It was just about my Earth. I’m a bit worried about them. My sister especially.” Sara puts a comforting hand on her arm. “Your sister is literally bulletproof. I’m sure she’s going to be alright. And besides, I promised you I’d get you back to her only a day later, remember?” Alex nods, knowing the blonde is right, but also knowing that this is not going to stop her from worrying. 

“Let’s go get some breakfast.” Sara suggests, getting up from the bed to put on some clothes. Alex nods, grabbing her clothes. “I’m just going to take a shower, see you in the break room.” She heads off towards the bathroom, resolving to shower quickly as her stomach is already rumbling with hunger.

When she sees the food on the table in the break room, she raises her eyebrows. “Waffles twice in four days? Didn’t know you all ate so lavishly on this ship.” Sara flicks her on the nose good-heartedly. “They’re celebratory pancakes. You know, to celebrate that Amaya’s back. Legends tradition: whenever one of us is rescued from kidnapping, we eat fancy breakfast.” Alex just laughs, as she grabs herself a plate. She’s already trained for two hours anyway, she tells herself as she grabs three waffles and covers them in a generous amount of chocolate sauce, deciding at the last minute to add some raspberries. Now it’s Sara’s turn to raise her eyebrows. Alex just shrugs, winking. “I’m celebrating.” 

“Get a room, you two.” Mick exclaims, nursing a bottle of beer instead of a waffle. Sara punches him in the arm, harder than is strictly necessary. Alex isn’t particularly upset; in fact, she was surprised that Sara could have prevented the team from commenting on her stay during the past four days. And judging from the look on Mick’s face, she’s fairly certain that he will think twice before making any more comments. Sara might be small, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t pack a punch.

They spend the rest of the day relaxing. Sara has decided that the team needs some time to rest and recover before they go back out into the field to fight anachronisms, so the team members all find various ways to amuse themselves. Ray and Zari spend the morning gaming on some sort of computer which Alex has never seen before, and Mick is nowhere to be seen after breakfast. Alex herself joins Nate, Amaya and Sara for a few rounds of scrabble (where she just barely loses to Nate; she supposes being a historian is after all better for your vocabulary than being a secret agent) and reading books she finds in the library of the ship. The books, some of which seem to be manuscripts she’s pretty sure are original, and some which she is almost certain don’t exist on her earth, are utterly fascinating. Sitting in the library, reading, she loses track of time, until the blonde comes to pick her up.

“You know it’s almost midnight, right?” Sara interrupts her reading. Alex looks up, surprised. Her eyes take a few moments to adjust away from the page. “Midnight? I must’ve lost track of time. This book is just so interesting.” She says, smiling. “Nerd.” Sara scoffs, but her voice is friendly and her face is soft. Alex has never liked this particular insult (what is wrong with being interested in knowledge?) but coming out of Sara’s mouth, the word suddenly doesn’t sound quite so bad. “Let’s go to bed.” Sara says. “Right, about that…” Alex says slowly, remembering her thoughts from the morning. “Not that I don’t love sharing a bed with you-“ Sara smirks widely, and Alex can barely refrain from blushing-“But I was thinking, if I’m going to stay on the ship, I should get my own bed.” Sara nods, already getting up to walk towards her bedroom. Alex hopes she’s not insulted- but how could she, Sara Lance, the most beautiful woman in possibly all of the universes- be insulted by that?  
“I think Ray has a camp bed here somewhere. And we can figure out something more permanent in the morning.” She says, as they walk back towards the bedroom.

“Hey.” Alex says softly, after they’ve set up the bed. Sara turns towards her, finally looking at her. Alex has the feeling she’s been avoiding her eyes. She pulls on her arm so the woman sits down next to her on the couch. “You know this is not about you, right? You’re the hottest woman I’ve met, like, ever.” Alex can’t believe she’s saying this, she feels like an annoying teenage boy. But she’s encouraged by the hint of a smile returning to Sara’s face. “And when you smile? It’s all I can do sometimes not to launch myself at you.” She plows through, determined to get through her speech without getting distracted by those gorgeous eyes. “But I’m still not over Maggie. Sometimes, when I think of her, it feels like losing her all over again. The wound is still so fresh, I don’t think I could start anything new right now. And you deserve better, Sara. You deserve someone who’s not held back, who can love you with all of their heart at once.” She finishes. Sara nods. “Alright.” “Alright?” Alex asks, a little surprised the blonde is giving in so easily. “You’re right, now is not the right time. But maybe someday.” She says, smiling.

Alex smiles too. “Definitely maybe someday. You’re an incredible woman Sara, and I would be so lucky to have you. I just need more time.” “Of course.” The blonde says warmly. She gets up, turning to hug Alex before going to her own bed. As they hug, Alex feels her heart healing just a little, filling her with hope. Definitely maybe someday.


	12. One Month Anniversary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I am so sorry for the delay in updating, I've been really busy with work and uni. Hope this chapter makes up for it a little!

When Alex wakes up that morning, she looks over at the clock on the bedside table. It’s 7:30 AM on the dot. Her body has finally adjusted to the lack of sunlight as a natural wake-up call, and has found its new sleep rhythm on the Waverider. On the corner of the clock, she suddenly notices the date. 03-14-2018. The fourteenth of March. She’s been on the ship for a month exactly, she realizes. 

And the length of her stay is noticeable, not just in the fact that her body has found a new sleeping rhythm. She feels like she’s a real part of the team now. Apart from the fact that she fights with them on missions and has learned to embrace the research aspect of time-travel, her name has been added to Ray’s chore wheel. When she walked into the kitchen two weeks ago to find out that she was on breakfast duty, she was a little surprised at first. She’d still been planning to return home eventually, and putting down roots on the team was not exactly a part of that plan. But when she realised the implications of her name on the wheel, the fact that at least Ray now considered her a semi-permanent fixture of the team, she actually felt flattered. The Legends might have been a bunch of outcasts and misfits, but under Sara’s skilled leadership, they made a phenomenal team.

“Need some help reading the time, Danvers?” Sara asks from the bed beside Alex’s. Alex looks away from the clock at the blonde, pulled out of her thoughts. “I just realised it’s the 14th of March. I’ve been on the ship for exactly a month.” “It’s been a whole month?” Sara asks incredulously. She shakes her head. “Even after all these years, it’s still hard to keep track of the passing of time here. But anyway, your one month anniversary on the ship sounds like a reason to celebrate.” Alex swears the grin adorning the blonde’s face at that statement is downright mischievous. She just rolls her eyes. She knows by now that if Sara really wants something, there is nothing in any universe that can stop her. She mentally prepares herself for another party.

After the two have breakfast together, joined by Zari and Ray after a few minutes, Sara excuses herself. Alex doesn’t think anything of it; she spent the first few days on the ship closely together with Sara because the blonde was, after all, her closest friend on the ship. But when she decided to make her stay more than temporary, they’d both realised that Sara had her own duties to attend to, and they really did not need to spend every waking (and not waking) minute together. Alex spent the most time working with Ray; she found his knowledge of technology (aided by travel to an unimaginable future) interesting, to say the least, and she hoped to pick something up that she could later utilize at the DEO. 

She also spent quite some time with Zari, the dark-haired woman being interested in her life on another planet, and Alex interested in the future Zari was from. And she even occasionally spent time with Mick, on the days when all she wanted to do was sit in silence and drink a beer. But as time went on, there’d been fewer of those days. 

Today, she decides to head to the training room with Zari. They spend the first hour working out separately, lifting weights, doing push-ups and running on the treadmill. When they’ve finished with that, they decide to do some sparring. After their first couple of simultaneous training sessions, Alex offered to help Zari with her training. She wasn’t sure how the dark-haired woman would take her suggestion; she seemed quite proud and maybe even a little arrogant to Alex when they interacted. But her teammate had accepted the suggestion gratefully. 

Zari had the strength and toughness of someone who grew up fighting for herself in the streets, which was a quality Alex was glad to find. She had no experience in training anyone who lacked the spirit of fighting. Zari, though plentiful in spirit, was a little lacking in technique. But as they spar that day, Alex is happy to notice a marked improvement in her pupil. She makes sure to tell her so at the end of their session; tough love has its benefits but she knows how important it is to praise progress in trainees when visible. 

“You’re doing well, Zari!” She says as they head out of the training room, towels around their shoulders. She notices a subtle hint of a smile on the woman’s face at her words. “Just focus on improving the speed of your feet, and you will do fine in a fight. You’re small and quick, so use that to your advantage in a fight against bigger and stronger opponents.” Zari nods. “I’ve become so dependent on my totem, that the thought of losing it even for a moment has been scaring me for a while now. I really want to be able to hold my own, even without my totem. Thank you for training me.” Now it’s Alex’s turn to smile. “It’s my pleasure. You’re a good pupil.”

The two women nod at each other as they go their separate ways, towards the shower. It’s still mid-morning when Alex is done showering, and Sara is nowhere to be seen. So Alex decides to head towards the laboratory: she’s been working on a few projects with Ray, of which neither of them know the purpose quite yet, but she has no doubt that Ray’s brainchildren will prove useful at some point in the future. 

Their main project has been the analysis of Lucas’s body and brain; they’ve been spent a lot of time looking at his DNA for clues about the reason behind his awareness of past timelines. Alex is disappointed to say they haven’t had much progress in that area; they’re no closer to identifying the issue than they were right after recovering the body. But Ray’s boundless optimism that they will figure it out eventually is enough for Alex at the moment, and she’s just glad that her background in molecular science is proving useful in their research.

“Could you try to finish this by yourself?” Ray says to Alex, surprising her slightly. His tone of voice seems a little suspicious to her. She will have no problem completing the last phase of their project by herself, but she doesn’t quite understand why. Ray doesn’t offer her much in the way of explanations. “There’s just something else I have to do.” The way he says that last remark is even more suspicious to Alex, but she figures that since it’s Ray, it can’t really be nothing too terrible. She knows she could make him tell her in a heartbeat: he much resembles Winn, even in this respect. But she’s willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, a little privacy is hard to get, living as they do on a small ship in very close quarters to one another.

She thinks nothing more of it as she finishes up their project, surprised to find that the clock has struck five by the time she’s done. Her stomach is rumbling, and she realizes she hasn’t had any real food since breakfast. They keep a plentiful stash of energy bars in the lab, since both she and Ray are often too wrapped up in their work to leave for food. 

She decides to stop by her room to change before eating dinner: hungry as she is, she still understands that showing up to the break room wearing clothes that are smeared with fluid, some of it Lucas’s, will not be the most appetising thing to the rest of her team. She puts on a light-blue t-shirt (perhaps a little of Sara’s influence seeping through), but compensates for it by putting on a tough-looking denim jacket. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she wonders whether to try and do anything with her hair. In the absence of a hairdresser, her hair is growing out more than she would like it to. But she can definitely not braid as Sara does, so with a sigh and a shrug she decides that it’s fine as it is. After all, it’s just a regular dinner, and seeing she’s encountered very little people on the ship so far, it seems entirely possible that she’ll be alone at dinner. 

When she walks into the break room, she has a faint sense of deja-vu from her very first day on the ship. As soon as the door opens, there’s a sound that she could swear is louder than an actual grenade explosion, as several confetti canons fire. The confetti is everywhere, surrounding her and clouding her vision so that for a moment she cannot even see all of her teammates who are doubtlessly standing around her. As the cloud of confetti clears a little, Alex detects with dismay that she is covered from head to foot in the papery substance. There goes her intention of looking tough by wearing a biker jacket.

Looking around the room, she first notices all of her teammates. All of them (except for Mick, whose presence is already a miracle by itself) are smiling. Ray, Zari and Sara, the people who she has grown closest to over the past month, are holding a giant cake. It’s covered entirely in white icing, which Alex is happy to find is a little less over-the top than she would have expected. On the top it says “Happy 1 month anniversary” in a slanted script, which Alex recognizes as Sara’s handwriting. She can’t deny the gesture is touching; despite having an actual food fabricator on board, her teammates have taken the time to personally make her a cake.   
Sara, of course, being Sara, has gone what Alex deems over the top on decorations: there are streamers around the room, garlands wrapped around the ceiling and not one, but three banners which all say things like “Welcome to the team Alex!” and “Happy one month anniversary!” 

“Come on, blow out the candle!” Sara entices Alex, clearly impatient at the redhead’s observation of the room. “One candle?” Alex asks. “Well, it is your one month anniversary.” Zari says, smiling for once. Alex goes forward and blows out the candle, as everyone cheers her on. “Time for cake!” Nate says excitedly. Alex can hear Amaya remark quietly whether he ever thinks of anything other than his stomach. She smiles. “Of course, Nate! You can have your cake.” “Whoa, not so fast!” says Sara. “Oh oh.” Thinks Alex. She trusts the blonde with her life, but she’s still suspicious of her plans. “Time for a speech!” Alex groans inwardly. She doesn’t like speaking publicly like this. Giving orders to her soldiers, sure. She even has some experience in speaking to high-ranking government officials. But she’s never liked speeching.

As she looks around the room, however, she realizes something. She might not like public speaking, but the people standing around her now deserve a speech more than anyone in her life ever has before. So she steps forward, making up her mind.

“One month ago, I was not in a great place. As most of you know, I was still not quite over the breaking-off of my engagement. I was sitting by myself, miserable, when I thought of the Waverider.” At that someone, either Mick or Nate, wolf-whistles. Alex ignores it, and continues on speaking. “I came here, broken and unhappy. But you all took me in. You showed me that I could still have a good time, and you let me be part of your team. For that, I am truly grateful.” Her speech is short, but heartfelt and to the point. 

“We’re lucky to have you.” Ray says sincerely, giving her a hug. Both Sara and Zari give her hugs as well. Alex isn’t usually much of a hug person except with her sister, but she supposes this is a special occasion. After everyone has hugged her, shaken her hand or patted her on the back, Sara announces it is time for cake. “You do the honours.” She says to Alex, handing her a large cake knife. As Alex slices the cake, the plain white icing gives way to a wave of colour. When she takes out the first piece of cake to put it on a plate, she rolls her eyes. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. She recognizes the Pride flag immediately. Her assumption that the cake was simple is wrong after all. She can’t really say she’s surprised. And once she’s over the initial surprise, she finds she’s actually quite happy.

“You like the cake, Danvers?” Sara says, with a grin that stretches across her entire face. Alex smiles back. “Yeah, I really do.” Sara seems pleased at her genuine smile. And besides, a rainbow cake must have been an even more work than Alex originally thought. She’s grateful for the effort the entire team has put into the party.

As she sits around the table with the rest of the team, all eating the cake and chatting happily, she notices the absence of something. She suddenly realises what it is. The pain in her chest, that’s been her steadfast companion for the better part of six months, is gone. She smiles even wider at the realisation, unaware of a pair of bright blue eyes watching her.


	13. It's a Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I'm so sorry you had to wait this long. Thank you all very much for your continued support! I love writing this story, and I hope to keep updating it a bit more regularly :)

After the party, they walk back to their room together. Alex notices the tiniest sign of nerves inside her stomach. She mentally shakes her head at herself for being nervous. She and Sara have been living in the same room for more than a month now, there is no need for her to feel weird. But she knows that's not entirely true.

As they walk into the room and sit down on their respective beds, Alex realizes something has changed. Something inside of her is different. She figures it must have something to do with the sudden absence of the ache within her chest. After all, during the last four weeks, she has been living with Sara, but she has also been living with the knowledge that she isn't ready for anything to happen between the two of them. As much as she has enjoyed some light flirting with the blonde badass, they have had very strict boundaries. Sara was off-limits. Until now, that is.

Alex sits on her bed and looks over at the other woman. It appears as though Sara hasn't noticed any change. She's tidying up her side of the room, throwing a sweat stained training shirt into their shared laundry basket. She's going about her bedtime routine the way she always does. Alex doesn't understand how the blonde is so calm, so normal. For her, everything is different. It is as if (she scolds herself mentally for the ridiculous metaphor) she is seeing the world in colour again, as if reality is suddenly much sharper in front of her.

She remembers the first time she felt like this, felt like she knew her true purpose in this world. It was after she first met Maggie, when she realized she was quickly falling for the NCPD detective. The moment Maggie told her she liked her back, it was as if her eyes had been opened. At the memory of Maggie, Alex braces herself for the familiar pain. The sting between her lower ribs. But to her surprise, it doesn't come. There's a faint ache, of knowing that something beautiful is over. But she can remember it with fondness now. She smiles to herself.

"What are you so happy about, Danvers?" She suddenly hears Sara saying. She looks up, startled. She hadn't realized the blonde had stopped making her bed. Instead of answering, she grins more broadly. The assassin still looks a bit puzzled, but she returns the grin, looking as if she simply can't help herself. "Want to go see a movie this weekend?" Alex exclaims, surprising even herself. Sara's eyebrows shoot up. "Are you asking me on a date, Danvers?" She says teasingly, with a wink at the end to show Alex that she's kidding, that she remembers their agreement and respects the fact that the redhead needs more time.

But Alex is done needing time. Time is all she's had for the past half year, and suddenly she is so over needing more time. What she needs, is to go on a date with the gorgeous woman in front of her. What she needs, is to fill those silk-soft lips on top of her own, this time without the taste of too much Scotch in their mouths. "So what if I am?" She replies coyly. She hears Sara suck in a sharp breath. She's enjoying this feeling of power. She didn't know it was possible to catch the trained assassin of guard. But now that she has, she can't seem to get enough.

After she has recovered from her initial shock, Sara turns soft. "I'd really like that, Alex." And Alex has to hold herself back not to kiss the soft smile right off the blonde's mouth. The way Sara says her name, Alex, in such a soft tone, instead of just "Danvers" in her usual teasing tone, is intoxicating. But she reminds herself that this time, she wants to take it slow. Sure, when the blonde was just a crazy hot badass at the Flash's wedding, it was all Alex wanted to have their wicked, wild night of fun. But now that she has realised how incredible, intelligent, caring and surprisingly vulnerable the woman in front of her is, she wants to do things right.

She knows Sara hasn't had the best luck with romantic partners, and what she wants, more than anything, is to show the blonde that she is so, so worth it. That she deserves a beautiful, heartfelt love story with someone who really cares about her. That she is so much more than just a one-night stand. That she is someone worth caring about. And so Alex just nods, and smiles, and says: "It's a date."

They sit cross-legged on their beds, opposite from each other. Both of them are grinning like crazy. Sara is the first to break the silence again, after they've been staring at each other lovingly for what feels like eternity. "So, we're really doing this, huh?" Alex is quick to respond. "Yes. Yes, we absolutely are." She says with the utmost conviction. Then she blushes a little. They've grown close in the past month, so it feels natural that they already care so much about each other. But it makes taking it slow a little more difficult.

The silence between the two of them becomes a little awkward, as they both become unsure of how to proceed. "So, what movie did you want to see? Gideon can download us anything, from any era. Nate keeps watching these obscure history movies, actually. I thought you might be into those." Alex smiles at that. She can't deny that she would definitely be into that. Even though she majored in biochemistry, she's always been a bit of a nerd about history. And really, seeing as they're on a time-travelling spaceship, she thinks it's a good thing anyway. And Sara doesn't seem to mind. But for their first date, she has different plans.

"That sounds lovely. But I was thinking we could take the Waverider somewhere. You know, see an actual movie in the cinema." "You're really pulling out all the stops, huh, Danvers?" Sara says teasingly. Alex grins. Even though she thinks Sara is adorable when she lets down her guard a little and becomes soft and vulnerable, she can't deny that she enjoys the confident, teasing side of her incredibly. "Look who's talking." She retorts. "Do you want me to recount all of the ridiculous, completely overboard things you've done since I came aboard the ship? I mean, you took me to the freaking Olympics. In 1952." Sara just laughs shamelessly.

"Fair enough. Do you have a specific movie in mind? We could go to the first premiere of Star Wars, Ray and Nate would be so insanely jealous." Alex laughs. Seeing the premiere of Star Wars doesn't seem like a bad idea to her either. But she has other plans. "Maybe next time." She says. "So you think there'll be a next time, huh? Such a bold assumption." Sara teases again. But her voice isn't quite sharp enough to make it properly teasing, and they both just laugh.  
"So not Star Wars. Are you even going to tell me where we're going? You're being so mysterious." Sara says. Alex considers keeping the blonde in the dark for a moment. Watching her try to discover where they're going is undeniably fun. But she decides against it, because she knows that she'd like to talk about it with Sara beforehand.

"Actually, I was thinking we wouldn't time travel this time. There is a movie coming out in our own time which I would like to see. Have you heard about it? It's called "Love, Simon"." Alex knows that the movie was coming out in the next month on her own world, and all it took was a quick search for Gideon to find out that the movie will premiere on this earth almost at the same time. But she's not surprised to find out that Sara hasn't heard of the movie yet. After all, the assassin has been on the ship, secluded from her own time for much longer than Alex has.

"Well, it's the first big blockbuster production with a main character that's gay." Alex explains. "LGBT characters are becoming more and more common in movies and tv series, but this is the first time a movie of this size has had a gay main character." Sara nods in understanding. "It's such a shame that it has taken so long. But I'm happy that things are changing now. And this is an important milestone, so I'd be really excited to go see the movie with you." Alex grins broadly, feeling the very last bit of nerves disappear.  
"I'm pretty sure it's just a silly, teenage rom com. But you know, maybe that's exactly what we need right now. Not only dramatic, heartbreaking indie movies with gay characters. But also large-scale, silly, classic rom coms." Alex says, Sara just nodding in understanding. Now that she's talking, Alex is surprised to find out that she feels so strongly about this. She looks down in her lap, away from Sara's piercingly blue eyes.

"I keep thinking, that if a movie like that had come out when I was in high school, maybe it wouldn't have taken me so long to understand who I am. I wouldn't have had to go through all those painfully awkward hetero relationships, only to make a complete fool of myself by falling for Maggie and having an identity crisis. And she wouldn't have turned me down for being "fresh off the boat" in the first place." When Alex looks up again, she sees that Sara is shaking her head.

"No, Alex. Turning you down for that, that was wrong of Maggie. You've never made a fool of yourself. You're living your truth now, and that's all that matters. And just think, if none of that had happened, you wouldn't be here with me right now." Alex smiles at that.

"You're right. And thank you for saying that. Everything that happened to me made me who I am. And I'm just happy that movies like that exist today, so that the kids who are in high school now get to find out sooner." They both smile. Sara opens her arms wide, offering Alex a hug. And Alex walks over to her happily, and they hug right there in the middle of the room.  
B  
oth of them hold on maybe a moment longer than is necessary, but Alex is happy to find that not all that much has changed between them. Sure, they're going to go on their first date soon, but above all else they're still close friends. Looking back at all the deep conversations they've had in the past month, all of which ended like this, with them hugging it out, Alex is so happy just to have Sara in her life.

They let go off each other, and after Alex looks at the clock and discovers that it is already more than an hour past midnight, they both decide to hurry up and get ready for bed. After they've brushed their teeth, they say good night and climb into their own beds. Alex looks over at Sara. She adores seeing Sara like this. Hair down, wearing simple sweat pants and a t-shirt. Like this, the woman who she knows can beat almost anyone in a fight, is surprisingly soft and precious. When the blonde looks like this, she wants to kiss her almost even more than when she's wearing a gorgeous gown.

Alex sighs at herself. She's being such a lovesick teenager. She can't deny that there was a part of her that thought that her attraction to Sara would decrease when she decided she could actually date her. Something of "We want what we can't have."" But the opposite is true. Now that she and the blonde are at a tentative start of their relationship, her emotions only seem to have multiplied. And she wants Sara more than she has ever wanted her before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don't really think it's going to be this easy, right? ;)


	14. Alex is Still a Badass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I keep promising to update more regularly, so I've already written the next chapter and a half as well. I will update the first of those on Monday - after I get back from a convention in Paris at which I will be meeting Chyler!! I actually met her two weeks ago at an East of Eli concert (it's her husband's band, and the music is great), and meeting her was absolutely incredible :)

Alex runs around the corner, her arm already stretched out, pointing a gun at the room in front of her. She curses silently when she realizes that the room before her is already empty. She’s glad that the sparse furnishings at least mean that it’s easy to detect her lack of opponent. But she’s been chasing the man for almost an hour now, and she’s starting to feel out of her depth. Aside from a brief look at the blueprints which Gideon helpfully provided, she has no idea about the layout of the building. Unlike her opponent, who has clearly spent the past few months preparing for this heist.

Although all the rooms she’s gone through so far have roughly the same furnishing, namely a wooden desk of some sort, a high tech computer which looks more advanced than even the technology at the DEO, and a cabinet always protected by at least two different security methods, she’s fairly certain that the man she’s chasing after has already determined which of the near-identical rooms contains valuable information. She’s also almost as certain that whatever the specific item is that he’s been sent to retrieve, it is already in his possession. She needs to stop him, before he makes it out of the building.

She walks across the room to the door, making sure her footsteps are too quiet to hear. At a first glance, the room has no other door than the one she’s just come in from. But by now she’s figured out that things in this building are not always what they seem. She notices that the cupboard is slightly askew, from where her enemy has already passed through. She approaches it, prepared to do some heavy lifting in order to be able to move the cabinet. It seems to be made of reinforced steel. But when she puts her hands against it to give it a push, she is surprised to find that it moves underneath her touch quite easily. Apparently this cabinet is only a fake. She would be annoyed at the owner’s complicated furnishing, if she didn’t know the valuable secrets that the measures had been designed to protect.

After she’s pushed the cabinet to the side, she pushes open the door hidden behind it. She shakes her head at the room in front of her. Just when she’s come to expect the same, basic room with a table, computer and a file cabinet, protected by a hidden door, she finds herself in a different room. Instead of a hidden door, this room has three doors in plain sight. She sighs, knowing this is her only shot before the criminal slips away. She has to stop him before he can escape, and she can’t afford to choose the wrong door. She silently thanks Winn as she pulls the device out of her waistband. She points it at the different doors, glad when the doorknob of the door on the far right lights up red. The device is designed to measure residual heat, and based on the bright shade of red she sees, her opponent can’t have come through there more than a minute before her arrival. Finally something is going right.

She opens the door with her left hand, her right hand already pointing her trusty alien gun in front of her. She finds herself peering into a dark corridor. Although she can’t see anything, she hears running footsteps in front of her. She doesn’t hesitate for even a second before running into the corridor, plunging herself into darkness. Her footsteps sound loud on the linoleum floor, but it doesn’t matter anymore. By now the criminal has long ago figured out she’s tracking him. All she can do is run full force ahead, hoping that her special agent training and her rigorous working out on the Waverider have allowed her to maintain her good shape. Hopefully, her opponent will tire before she does and she can finally catch him.

Suddenly, she remembers something from Gideon’s blueprints. She’d noticed a long tunnel on the South side of the building. She pushes herself to run even faster as she realizes where the tunnel is headed. If she remembers correctly, the tunnel ends straight next to a busy crossroads. If the man makes it out of there, all hope of finding him is lost. She has to outrun him, she just has to. She ignores her calves which are starting to ache and her breath which is starting to hitch despite all her training. She has no idea how long the tunnel is, but she knows she can’t keep this up forever.

She hopes fervently that the rest of her team is faring better. She hasn’t seen them since the moment they arrived in the building. Once they’d realized what was happening, they’d split up and each one of them had followed a different criminal. Alex finds some consolation in the fact that the pieces of information, invaluable together, are almost useless when separated. She has to give it to the inventor. Even though going for an extended vacation to the Bahamas doesn’t seem like the smartest choice to Alex, he had at least taken every possible precaution in order to protect his files. Splitting the information up into different segments and then hiding them all across a building made up of dozens of near-identical rooms should have been enough to protect it. The only thing the inventor hadn’t counted on was a time-travelling crime organization with the future experience to break into any building.

So that’s where the Legends come in. And as she pushes and pushes herself to run harder, Alex keeps reminding herself of the importance of the information in question. Without this design, she can’t even imagine what the twenty-first century would look like. The reminder of the importance helps Alex to run faster, but it also distracts her. So it is too late when she realizes that the footsteps in front of her have stopped. The wind is pushed out of her lungs when she her chest impacts something hard, like a bar of steel, at full speed. She can’t stop herself from doubling over, gasping in pain. Briefly, the blueprint flashes in front of her eyes. She only sees a small alcove next to the tunnel as she is knocked to the ground by another blow to the shoulders.

The pain out of the second blow pushes her out of her thoughts and focuses her. As she falls to the ground, she quickly rolls over to the side. So when the third blow strikes, it only hits the ground. She fights through the pain in order to stand up. She knows she is weakened, so she has to finish this as quickly as possible. She considers just shooting her alien gun, but the blast could ricochet, or worse, destroy the tunnel. And she doesn’t want to risk damaging the files of information. So she shuffles around quietly, feeling her skin being coated in a layer of dirt. They must be close to the exit, if dirt has made its way into this part of the corridor. 

She can hear her opponent shuffling around as well, not as skilled in masking the sound of his footsteps. She follows the sound of his movements, glad that the darkness has sharpened her hearing. She knows that she has to get in a good punch before he is able to hit her again with the steel bar. So she pushes herself close to the wall, so close that her opponent hopefully won’t notice her presence. She knows that he will keep his back to the wall as he moves around, since his front side is already protected by the steel. She waits until she can hear him shuffling to the spot in front of her, making absolutely certain that that is where he is standing. Then, she brings up her arm with the alien gun in her hand, and brings it down in front of her with as much force as she can manage. She feels it connect with something hard, and seconds later she hears the sound of the body in front of her falling to the ground. She sighs in relief, glad her opponent is down but hoping that the injury is not fatal.

She brings out the flashlight in her pack, now that she is in no danger of revealing her position to the enemy. As she turns it on, she is momentarily blinded by the harsh light. The first thing she sees after her eyes have adjusted is the man in front of her. He is big and burly, and she is immensely glad that she’s been able to take him out on the first blow. As the pain in her chest reappears full force, no longer blunted by adrenaline, she realizes that she might not have been able to last much longer in the fight against him.

The man is crumpled up on the floor, his bald head now sporting a large bruise around the top of his head, which is also covered in blood from where the skin has split. Alex crouches down to check his pulse, then sighs in relief when she realizes that he is only knocked out. She ties his wrists together quickly in case he manages to wake up despite the head injury. When she’s done, she quickly starts to pat him down to find the file. She doesn’t have to search long. He might’ve been able to plan this heist so well that she has almost not managed to stop him, but he hasn’t been very careful in concealing the information. She zips open his jacket, and finds the file there. She grabs it quickly, dusting it off before zipping it up into her own jacket. Then, she gets back up again and makes her way to the exit of the tunnel.

When she gets outside, she is slightly disappointed to find that none of her teammates have arrived. But she’s not really surprised; their rendezvous point is at the other side of the building. So she grabs the communication device out of her back pocket and radios in to the Waverider. She’s happy when Sara answers immediately, the relief in her voice clear. There was no signal inside the building, so she hasn’t been able to communicate with the rest of the team. Alex heads over to their rendezvous point, relieved to hear that the rest of the team has already returned safely with the information.

Sara gives her a quick hug as she walks over to the team, and it’s all they need to express their relief at the other’s safety. Alex smiles at the rest of the team, and they smile back at her. “We just saved America!” Ray says excitedly. Sara rolls her eyes. “Definitely not the first time. Besides, some might say that America would actually be better off without smartphones.” Alex laughs at that. She knows the blonde doesn’t really mean it: she’s just as excited as the rest of the team at having been able to save the design for the very first smartphone. And they all realize the importance of this information for the design of future technology. “Agree to disagree.” Nate says. “After all, without smartphones, we wouldn’t have Candy Crush.” Sara mock-punches him, and then she turns around to walk towards the Waverider, the rest of the team following her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter! A lot of you have been asking for more badass Alex so here is my attempt at that. I'm never quite sure when writing action scenes though, so please do let me know what you think :)


	15. No Love, Simon

After she’s taken a long shower, being careful to wash off every single piece of dirt that she’s collected during her scuffle in the tunnel, Alex makes her way back to their shared bedroom. Sara is already there, looking breath-taking in a plain white tank top with her still wet hair pulled into a simple ponytail. The blonde smiles when she walks into the room. They haven’t been able to see a lot of each other in the past twenty-four hours, due to their incredibly hectic mission. And truth be told, as much as she has missed the blonde (which she knows is silly; it’s barely been a day) she’s so worn out that all she really wants to do now is sleep.   
Not that she’d planned to do anything else; after all, they’ve both agreed to take things slow for the moment, at least until their first official date on Saturday. But Alex would definitely not have minded a nice chat with maybe some cuddling mixed in. “Busy day, huh?” Sara startles her out of her thoughts. Alex nods. “Definitely. But I don’t really mind busy, it was nice to simply beat up some bad guys again.” The blonde laughs. While she was out in the field, gun in hand and tactical gear on, Alex realised that she had missed these straight-forward missions. The kind of mission she would’ve usually been assigned at the DEO, where it was her job to go in and fight and make sure there were as little casualties as possible. 

So far, her missions with the Legends had been a bit more complicated, due to the fact that they constantly had to take into account the protection of history as well as the protection of civilians. And there had also been deeply personal missions such as Amaya’s kidnapping. It had been nice to be allowed to fight the way she had been trained to without having to consider whether that fighting style was even time-appropriate. 

“Deep in thoughts, Danvers?” Sara startles her again. She looks back up. “Sorry, I was just thinking about how nice and simple this mission was.” Sara laughs. “Nice and simple? One of the most important inventions of the twenty-first century was at stake.” Alex rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean. As much as you seem to love getting dressed up in costumes-“ “Well, I can’t help wanting to look good throughout the entirety of history.” Sara says with a wink. Alex just ignores the comment and talks on. “It was nice to go out with my gear again.” “I know what you mean.” Sara replies. “Even though I do truly enjoy blowing minds with my looks throughout time, it always feels great to come back to my Canary costume.” 

“But enough about the mission.” She continues decisively. Alex raises her eyebrows, silently asking what the blonde does want to talk about. “We have a date to plan!” She says excitedly. Alex feels the urge to roll her eyes at the blonde’s excited change of topic, but she feels a soft smile appear on her face instead. She’s blocked out al thoughts about their date in order to be able to fully focus on the mission, but now that their adversaries have been defeated, her excitement has come back in full force. She can’t wait to go on a date with the wonderful woman in front of her.

“Gideon?” Sara asks. “Yes, captain.” The AI immediately responds. “Can you pull up at what time they’re showing Love, Simon at the Central City cinema?” This time, it takes a little longer for the computer to respond. “There does not seem to be any movie of this name in cinemas at the moment.” A look of confusion passes over Sara’s face, as Alex’s brows furrow. “Can you check again?” She asks the computer. “I have already checked twice, agent Danvers.”  
“I thought you said that the movie was also coming out on this earth?” Sara asks Alex. Alex nods. “Yeah, I even checked with Gideon beforehand. But I must’ve seen it wrong, apparently.” She shrugs. “Oh well. We can go see another movie.” Sara says. Then, she gets a mischievous expression on her face. “I wouldn’t mind spending two hours watching a laundry machine, if you were beside me.” Alex tosses a pillow at the blonde for the cheesy statement, and Sara only laughs loudly.

“I should refuse to go out with you just because of that sentence.” Alex threatens falsely. Sara just rolls her eyes. She knows as well as Alex does that she will definitely not pass up an opportunity to go on a date with her. Alex just wishes that the blonde would be a little less smug about herself, but then again, her confidence is one of Sara’s most attractive features. “As if you’re not cheesy, agent Danvers.” “I am not!” She protests. Sara raises her eyebrows. “Really? And what about those Valentines your mom sends you every year?” Alex groans. “Did I tell you about those?” She doesn’t remember talking to Sara about the Valentines, but then again, it is entirely possible that in her drunken haze she mentioned something about that. Maybe related to the fact that the Valentine from her mom was the only one she was getting.

Sara smiles triumphantly at her victory. “You pretend you’re so tough, Danvers. But I know the truth. You’re just a soft and cuddly teddy bear on the inside. A precious cinnamon roll, as the kids say.” Momentarily distracted by her verbal victory over the agent, Sara doesn’t notice Alex launching herself off of her own bed and onto Sara’s. She’s aiming for a quick headlock, but despite her distraction Sara’s training means that she recovers from the surprise before Alex is able to capture her. She grabs the redhead’s arms as they’re reaching behind her head to put her in a headlock, and brings them forward in a strong grip. Despite the fact that she can see the blonde’s muscles flexing in her forearms as they attempt to keep her from escaping, Alex knows that she can get herself out of the hold if she really wants to. But suddenly, she doesn’t really want to anymore.

Her breath hitches when she looks up from where the blonde is holding her arms. She didn’t realize that their faces are so close together. She can see the tiny freckles all across Sara’s face, and has a memory of herself at the ball, wishing she could kiss every one of those freckles. She has the urge to reach out and wipe away a droplet of water as it trails down from Sara’s hair onto her face, before she realizes that she can’t currently move her hands. She can see the blonde’s blue eyes staring at her own face, an look of adoration so pure that Alex can’t believe that anyone, let alone the most badass woman she’s ever known, is looking at her this way. Briefly, she considers leaning in and doing exactly what she wanted to do all those weeks ago. Kiss every freckle on Sara’s face until her lips are numb, and then some.

Instead, she uses the hold Sara has on her hands to quickly flip the two of them over, the blonde’s arms now trapped underneath her own body in a position which she can barely escape from. Alex grins. “Who’s the soft one now, Lance?” Before the assassin can come up with a retort, or worse, a sparring move that will cause Alex to relinquish all of her already wavering self-control, she jumps off the bed and makes her way over to her own bed. She quickly shuts off the lights, before one look at the gorgeous woman in front of her can make her change her mind. “Good night, Sara.” She says softly. The responding good night is said in such a breathy voice that Alex thanks the stars that she’s already turned off the lights. Resolutely, she rolls over in her bed to face the wall. But it takes a long time before she can finally fall asleep, visions of sparring with Sara ending in make-out sessions flashing before her eyes.

When she wakes up the next morning, Sara is already gone. Apparently the assassin had less trouble falling asleep last night, Alex thinks to herself. She can’t help the slight feeling of rejection at the thought of the blonde not being as distracted by Alex as she is by her. But she knows this is ridiculous. As team captain, Sara has a lot of duties which often cause her to get up earlier than Alex. And besides, she has some suspicions that her training at the League didn’t just provide Sara with fighting skills, but also taught her how to survive effectively on much less sleep, a skill which she supposes is extremely useful for assassins. 

She heads over to the training room for a quick session. She knows that getting rest after a mission is important, at least that’s what she always tries to tell Kara (even though the blonde is almost as stubborn as she is). But she can’t get the thought of running in that tunnel, not knowing whether she’ll be able to catch up to her opponent, out of her mind. She wants to be, has to be, more prepared next time. She can’t let history be messed up just because she can’t run fast enough.

So she pushes herself through a gruelling session on the treadmill, running longer and faster than she’s ever done before, at least when she’s not in the field. When Zari arrives at the training room an hour later, probably intending to ask her for a sparring session, the brunette takes one look at her and makes her way over to the yoga mats instead to do some pilates before attacking the boxing bag. Alex is secretly glad. Her legs and her lungs are burning, and she has the nagging suspicion that one of the muscles in her stomach is slightly torn from her fight yesterday. She makes a mental note to ask Gideon to patch that up later. And she doesn’t really want to know how terrible she looks on the outside, if it is enough to put Zari off from sparring with her. It feels like sweat is dripping down every single part of her body, and she can vaguely see her face getting more and more red in her distorted reflection on the metal handlebars of the treadmill.

After another half an hour on the treadmill, only interrupted by Zari silently offering her a bottle of water, which she doesn’t even have the energy to protest, she jogs over to the shower. Her muscles are screaming at her for the pace she’s going, but she doesn’t feel like running into anyone right now, especially not Sara, who she’s only ever seen break out into a marvellously sexy sheen of sweat. She’s never seen the blonde like this, face as red as a tomato and dripping with sweat.

After a freezing cold shower, which does little to drive the red colour from her cheeks, Alex makes her way back to her bedroom. Sara is still out somewhere tending to the rest of the team, so she decides to go to the library and get some books to read. Whenever she’s not been busy on missions or helping Ray with his science projects, she’s been reading as much as she can about the history of this earth. Luckily, the history doesn’t seem to differ too much from that off her own earth. But she still wants to be well-prepared. She doubts that high school AP history will be enough to understand whatever mission it is they will be taking on in the future.

In the library, she runs into Nate and Amaya, who have quite obviously just jumped apart at the sound of the door opening. Alex greets them both casually, before grabbing a stack of books and making her way out of the library again. She doesn’t care in the slightest about two of her shipmates being engaged in some sort of romantic relationship; after all, she’s not exactly in a position to judge. As long as they can keep their involvement from interfering with missions, Alex doesn’t think it’s a problem. She doesn’t really understand why they’re continually being so secretive, like two teenagers sneaking around. She secretly hopes that once she and Sara officially get together, they will be able to present their relationship in a more mature way towards the rest of the team. She’s never been one for PDA, but now that she’s finally accepted who she is, she definitely does not want to feel the need to hide her relationship anymore. And if Sara will be her girlfriend, she knows she’ll be the luckiest woman on the planet. She does not want to hide that from anyone.


	16. Paris

Alex has spent the morning training and reading up on history. She can’t deny that she enjoys occasionally having some time to herself like this. The Waverider is much smaller than the DEO, and she’s been living here along with her teammates for the past few months. Although she enjoys their company, she also likes getting some quiet time every once in a while. But after she’s spent over two hours in her bedroom, reading, she decides that it’s time to go out and see what the rest of the team is up to. Looking in the mirror, she is glad that the red flush from her training session has finally fully disappeared from her face. She berates herself mentally for caring this much about her appearance.

She knows that Nate and Amaya are in the library together, and she doesn’t particularly feel like interrupting them again. Knowing Ray, he’s probably in his lab. They’ve been working on analysing Lucas’s DNA to try and figure out how he was aware of the timeline changes, and despite some initially promising results, they haven’t made any progress in the past two weeks. Alex decides that right now she’s not in the mood for another fruitless attempt. So she decides to head over to the bridge, where she expects to find at least some of her other teammates. Sure enough, Zari is there, tinkering on something or other. The occasional alarming beeping doesn’t sound very reassuring to Alex, but by now she’s learned to trust that Zari probably knows what she’s doing. With the emphasis on probably. She’s seen her projects go sideways more than once in the month that she’s been there. 

Mick is sitting in a chair in the corner, casually drinking a beer. Alex knows that most of the team gets annoyed at his habits, but more than anyone else on the ship, she understands. She understands drinking the pain away, understands numbing yourself with alcohol until nothing really matters anymore. And she doesn’t blame him in the slightest, although as a special agent she would really prefer to have her operatives be sober.

Finally, Alex spots Sara in the captain’s lounge. Alex is unsurprised to find her sitting in front of a screen with Director Sharpe’s face on it. During the past few weeks, Alex has watched as the team slowly built up a working relationship with the Time Bureau. It was something which she recommended from the very beginning, despite Sara’s initial hesitations. Alex knew that the organisation had tried to fight the Waverider and stop them from timetravelling, and she understood Sara’s problems with working with them. But she also knew that the two organisations, which, like she kept telling Sara, had the same goal of protecting history, would be better off working together. Eventually, the two almost equally stubborn blondes had caved and seen reason. By now, Sara and the director had semi-weekly calls in which they updated each other on operations and discussed the best way to handle missions, thus effectively combining the methods of both the Time Bureau and the Waverider. After some initial successes which helped them understand the importance of their co-operation, the two women had started to get along surprisingly well.

“Director Sharpe.” Alex greets her as she walks into the lounge. “Agent Danvers.” The director acknowledges her with a nod. Sara smiles at Alex, before continuing her conversation with the other blonde. Alex joins them, occasionally filling in the blanks in Sara’s story as she updates Sharpe on their mission to recover the blueprints for the first smartphone. “Well, sounds like your team did a good job.” The director acknowledges after Sara has finished her debriefing. Sara accepts the compliment with a nod, and Alex is glad to see how far the two women have come in bringing their two organisations together. “We’ll let you know if there’s anything we need your help with.” The director finishes. “Thank you.” Sara replies. 

Now that the official part of their conversation is over, Sara relaxes and moves on to some small talk. The director is currently their main link to their contemporary world, aside from Gideon. So she updates Alex and Sara on everything that has been going on since they last spoke. She tells them about the latest political scandal, and even tells them about a newly announced celebrity pregnancy. It’s clear that the director herself doesn’t care in the slightest about this last piece of information, and Alex is fairly certain that the two people in question are not famous on her earth. But Sara gets excited at the news, and Alex can see just a glimpse of the carefree girl, the one who went to frat parties and followed celebrity gossip, before she found herself on that cursed boat.

Then, Sara moves on to asking Ava how she’s doing personally. “I just decided to move to a new apartment which is located closer to the Bureau, so that I can cut my travel time in half.” She informs them. Alex congratulates her. “And have you gone on dates with any hot women lately?” Sara asks teasingly. “What?!” The director exclaims. “Women? I- I never” She stutters. She’s looking more flustered by the second. “Yeah, women.” Sara says. “You know, you told me you were not the husband type, back on that mission with the Vikings.” Ava laughs, but the sound is frantic and forced. “Of course I never said such a thing. What a preposterous idea.” Sara just shrugs. “Well, I must’ve misunderstood.” “You most definitely must have.” Ava says decisively, regaining some of her former composure. “The fact that you would even suggest such a thing, Captain Lance… Well, it makes me think that you might be even less professional than I previously thought.” 

Sara looks over at Alex, a comical expression of confusion on her face. Then she looks back at Ava, holding her hands up in a conciliatory gesture. “Hey, whatever you say, Sharpe. Sorry to assume. Who you date is your own business. Just know that there’s no judgement here – you know I occasionally enjoy some female company as well.” She ends her sentence with a wink, and Ava Sharpe, after a short, disapproving shake of the head, terminates the call. 

“Well, that was weird.” Sara comments. Alex nods her assent. She hasn’t had many interactions with Ava Sharpe, so she doesn’t in any way presume to know anything about her sexuality, but there was still something off about the way the woman responded to the mere implication of her being gay. Alex knows there’s still plenty of people who get flustered at even the mention of homosexuality, but she didn’t think Ava Sharpe was one of them. She says as much to Sara, who nods in assent. “And she may have said she doesn’t remember, but the comment about her not being the husband type definitely happened. And even before that, well, there was always a little more to our competitions.” She adds with a laugh. Alex has to remind herself that there is really no reason to be jealous, after all, she is the one going on a date with Sara. Soon. After they figure out this whole mess.

“So, what do you think happened?” She asks Sara, determined to get to the bottom of the problem. Sara shrugs. Suddenly, realisation dawns on her face. “Remember how Love, Simon suddenly wasn’t in theatres anymore?” Alex nods. She doesn’t know what the blonde is getting at, beside her being careless when looking up movie viewings. “Well, what if the two events are related?” Alex nods slowly. “You’re right, that would make sense. Love, Simon is suddenly not coming out and, well, Ava Sharpe is also not coming out.” Alex rolls her eyes at herself for her phrasing, but Sara just says “Dork.” affectionately. “Can’t be a coincidence.” They both agree.

Sara tries to pull up the anachronism map to figure out the cause of the issue. The map blinks into existence, before disappearing again. She frowns as she attempts to open the map again. This time, there’s not even a hint of the map. “Gideon?” Alex asks, as Sara tries to pull up the screen for the third time. “Yes, agent Danvers?” The computer responds immediately. “Why is the anachronism map not working?” “It appears that some event of such a magnitude has occurred that the map is no longer functioning. There appear to be significant changes to so much of history that it is impossible to track the origin.” The computer explains. Alex and Sara turn towards each other, identical expressions of worry on their face. Alex can tell from Sara’s response that even for the time-travel accustomed Legends, this is a first. She wonders what kind of event could possibly have such an enormous impact.

She speculates in her head as they round up the rest of the team to inform them. Has Columbus not sailed to America? Was Hitler never born? Was the Wall of China never built? Or is there some other event in history, one which she doesn’t even know off, the cause of their troubles? She remembers some of the Legends’ earlier missions, the ones she has read countless files about. Even the murder of president Washington did not have such catastrophic results. She shudders to think what may have happened. 

After they’ve updated the rest of the team on their situation, their story met with multiple exclaims of confusion and disbelief, Sara asks everyone for ideas on how to solve the problem. “We do it the old-fashioned way.” Nate grins, looking much too happy for the occasion. “We go to the library, and figure out what happened. As historians.” “Well, we don’t need to do it that old-fashionedly…” Ray counters. “Gideon is still working, so we can use the internet and her online archives. We just can’t use the anachronism map.” The two men look over at Sara expectantly, each hoping that the captain chooses their idea. “Both solid plans.” Sara says, effectively terminating the competition. “Nate, you, Amaya and Alex go to the library and try to find something there. Nate and Zari, you’re here with me. Let’s see what Gideon can tell us.” The team nods and everyone quickly makes their way to their positions. It’s only then that Alex notices that Mick hasn’t even showed up to the briefing. She doesn’t think the man wants to read through history books anyway. As soon as Alex arrives in the library, she grabs the nearest book she can find and starts leafing through it. She wishes she had at least some indication of what she is looking for, but as it is, it could be anything. She sighs. This is going to be a long day.

Eight hours later, Alex has completely lost track of time. What she thinks is her fifth cup of coffee is in her hand, the liquid cold and long forgotten. Her eyes are so blurry that it takes her multiple tries to focus on the words on the page. Her other teammates are not much better off. Nate is pacing up and down the room, something which does not help Alex’s concentration in the slightest but which she has long since given up arguing against. His hair is a dishevelled mess from where his hands have been running through it. Amaya is curled up like a kitten on the only comfortable chair in the room. She doesn’t look as tired as Nate, but a large thermos of some sort of herbal tea (she says it helps her stay awake better than coffee) is placed by the leg of her chair, and every few minutes, Alex sees her eyelids droop, before her totem lights up as if startling her awake. The agent makes up her mind to go on for half an hour more, but then she will go to Sara and tell her the team needs rest.

Satisfied it will be over soon, she trains her eyes back on the page. But her renewed vigour soon starts to disappear as she realizes that there is once again nothing useful in the book. She’s almost given up, when suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she can see Amaya startle into an upwards position. Nate doesn’t notice as his back is currently turns towards her, but Alex catches Amaya’s eye. Amaya holds up a piece of paper. Alex quickly makes her way over there. She looks at the paper, realising it’s a map. It only takes her a few seconds before she recognizes the tell-tale curving of the river. “It’s a map of Paris.” She says. Amaya nods. “Notice anything off?” Alex takes a good look at the map. She sees a few key points, the Sacre Coeur, the Notre Dame… Then, she notices it. It’s the Eiffel Tower. “The Eiffel Tower is on the other side of Paris.” She exclaims.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for checking out my work! Please tell me what you thought. I'm always open to suggestions.


End file.
